SAME SONG...

The hrad of the state Corrections Department went to the Legislature
this week and said his agency has about 1,200 vacancies that can't be
filled because of the tight budget. Roughly 170 of those are
correctional officer positions. If the testimony from Ron Ward sounds
familiar, it should. The department has been fighting staffing
problems for years as the number of men and women being sent to prison
has steadily increased -- the prison population stands at roughly
23,000, up from about 15,000 eight years ago.

Ward says he's hopeful the Legislature will appropriate enough
additional money this year to allow the agency to cut its vacancy rate
in half. That would be great, but it also may well be wishful thinking.

It would be understandable, in another difficult budget year, if
lawmakers had a tough time meeting all the department's needs. But
they may want to start addressing the prison lockup issue at the front
end by considering ways to put fewer offenders behind bars.

A report released in December recommended that Oklahoma begin looking
at using drug courts and community sentencing instead of prison
sentences. Similar arguments have been heard before -- a year ago at
this time, the Oklahoma Sentencing Commission suggested the
elimination of mandatory prison sentences for drug offenders -- but
perhaps it's time to give them serious consideration.

Proponents say the recidivism rate for those sentenced through drug
courts is half that of those sent to prison. Sen. Dick Wilkerson,
D-Atwood, a longtime advocate of changing the way we do business in
these matters, says community sentencing programs, drug treatment
programs and electronic monitoring are worth exploring.

"When you see the rap sheet of someone in our prisons who has been
convicted of the same substance abuse crime six times, I don't see how
you can logically argue that what we are doing is working," Wilkerson
said this week.

The staffing burden being placed on the Corrections Department is
potentially dangerous. Lawmakers need to be open to sound ideas about
how to reduce that strain.