LAWMAKERS SLAM PRISON PLAN

Top lawmakers balked Wednesday at the state Corrections Board's plans to
contract for 2,240 more private prison beds at an annual cost of more than
$30 million.

"There will not be $30 million in the budget for that many more beds, nor
will we need that many more beds in fiscal 1999," said Sen. Cal Hobson,
assistant budget chairman and the Senate's point man for corrections.

"We ought to slow down on this plan and not get ourselves caught in a
trap," said Rep. James Hamilton, House Budget and Appropriations Committee
chairman.

"I just don't see that revenue being available,"' said Hamilton, D-Poteau.

Although the corrections board hasn't been given the money by the
Legislature, it decided Wednesday to contract for 1,500 more beds for males
at the new Wackenhut Corp. prison in Lawton and for 500 beds for females in
the state's first private prison for women at McLoud.

The board also voted to spend about $4 million to house 240 more inmates at
Sayre's new prison.

Both lawmakers agreed the state first needs to return to Oklahoma the 1,000
inmates in Texas private prisons. The state could use the money being spent
in Texas to incarcerate those inmates in Oklahoma prisons, they said. That
would create prison jobs in Oklahoma and move inmates closer to medical
care and their families, Hamilton said.

Oklahoma has 500 women inmates in Texas. The lawmakers said those should be
sent to McLoud.

The remaining 500 male inmates in Texas could be sent to Lawton or Sayre,
they said, but not all 1,740 beds coming on line at the two prisons are
needed yet.

"Wackenhut's sitting out there needing to fill up their beds," Hobson said,
"and Sayre's been dead empty since January; they've got the same problem."

Hobson, D-Lexington, said "There may be a little placating going on," by
the corrections board.

Corrections board member Tony Caldwell, a former legislator, said the beds
are needed based on the projected effect of truth in sentencing.

"Obviously these contracts are subject to legislative appropriations. So if
they don't give us the money, the contracts aren't any good, and then when
we don't have any beds for the inmates, I guess the Legislature can call
themselves back into session to deal with it," Caldwell said.

Although the Lawton facility is being offered at $40 a day, cheaper than
other Oklahoma private prisons, that doesn't mean the state should contract
for them if the space isn't needed, Hobson said.

Another 600 public beds will come on line by July 1 in state-owned prisons,
which the corrections board is failing to consider, the lawmakers said.

About 200 more beds each are scheduled for the Joseph Harp Correctional
Center, Lexington Assessment and Treatment Center and the Oklahoma State
Reformatory at Granite.Also, fewer inmates have been entering the
corrections system the past few months, lowering projected needs by another
300 beds.

Hamilton said the Legislature is already committed to spending $17 million
more annually to bring on line the 600 new public beds and hire 480 people
to operate them.

Hobson said the Legislature cannot yet project the cost of the
truth-in-sentencing reforms passed last year and being modified this
session.

Last year's bill would cost the state about $26 million more annually. A
stiffer version outlined in a bill by House Speaker Loyd Benson,
D-Frederick, would cost another $22 million.

Lawmakers stressed there is "no way" the state could pay an additional $30
million for private beds.

Caldwell countered: "We'd all like to have fewer people incarcerated in
Oklahoma, but based on what we know now about truth in sentencing, we're
going to need them (the beds)," Caldwell said.

The Wackenhut contract would pay $40 per day, per inmate in Lawton. The
McLoud prison, owned by Dominion Management of Edmond, would run $43.95 a
day.

The state would pay $43.49 for inmates at the Sayre prison, owned by
Corrections Corporation of America. That contract includes a sliding scale
- -- down to a lowest price of $41.05 -- depending on the number of inmates
in the 1,440-bed prison.