PRISON ADDICTION

State Too Dependent On Private Prisons, One Lawmaker Says

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma has become too dependent on private prisons for
medium-security cells, the Legislature's recognized leader on corrections
issues says.

And the state Board of Corrections' recent decision to add 2,240 more
private beds may push the state further into dependency, said Sen. Cal
Hobson, D-Lexington.

"You can get too dependent on a level of security," said Hobson, whose
district has two state-owned facilities, Lexington Assessment and Reception
Center and Joseph Harp Correctional Center.

"Then they drive the train at (contract) negotiation time. We are helped
now by having a number of vendors, but we are getting to have too high a
percentage of medium-security beds dependent on the private prison
approach."

Oklahoma has 4,618 state-owned medium security beds, said Jerry Massie, a
Department of Corrections spokesman.

It also uses 3,691 Texas and Oklahoma private medium-security beds, Massie
said.

The state plans to remove all inmates from Texas beds and return them to
private and public beds in Oklahoma.

Currently, the department uses 2,732 private Oklahoma beds.

If the Board of Corrections gets funding for the 2,240 additional private
Oklahoma beds, that total will be 4,972, surpassing the current number of
state-owned medium security beds. Lawmakers have yet to fund the additional
beds.

However, in the next few months, an additional 600 state-owned beds are due
to be open as a result of housing expansions in Lexington and Granite.

At that point, only 51 percent of the state's medium-security inmates will
be in state-run prisons.

It won't be long before private medium-security beds outnumber state
medium-security beds, said Dennis Cunningham, the department's head of
private prison administration.

Cunningham said there needs to be a balance between public and private
prison space, but he was uncertain what the breakdown ought to be.

"I don't know about being too dependent for the availability of beds," said
David Miller, the department's chief of population management and fiscal
operations. "That is the way we have to go. The issue is growth. Since we
are not really growing the state-operated system, it means our growth goes
into privately operated facilities."

At some point down the road, the state may need to build a state-owned
medium-security prison, Hobson said.

"The governor doesn't want to be in the prison-building business," said
Rick Buchanan, a spokesman for Gov. Frank Keating. "He wants to turn it
over to the private sector."

But Hobson noted that Keating won't be in office forever and said the state
ought to consider building another medium-security prison.

"We don't need it this year or the next, but we ought to start planning for
another one," Hobson said. "That provides competition for the privates,
too. And we do a very good job monetarily compared to the privates."

The smartest way to build a state medium-security prison would be to pair
it with a geriatric facility, Hobson said.

The Department of Corrections recently started looking into building a new
facility to hold 250 elderly and disabled male inmates, 50 infirmary
patients and an adequate number of general population inmates to provide
facility support. One consideration is the proximity to Oklahoma City and
to the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center.

A number of communities, including Henryetta and McAlester, are interested.

Prison officials want the facility to be ready to accept inmates by Sept.
1, 1999.

However, lawmakers have yet to fund a geriatric prison. Hobson said there
is only a 30 percent chance that it will get funded this year.

But eventually the state will have to have a geriatric facility, he said.