PRIVATE PRISON USE POSES RISK TO STATE, EXPERT SAYS

A prison expert told legislators Wednesday that Oklahoma's dependence on
private prisons leaves the state "vulnerable" and that lawmakers should
look at ways other than privatization to save money. James Austin, director
of George Washington University's Institute on Crime, Justice and
Corrections, said Oklahoma could have problems if private prison companies
decided to end their contracts with the state or faced financial
difficulties and had to close.

Such a situation would leave the state with thousands of inmates needing
cells. As of Jan. 27, Oklahoma's public prisons are almost 98 percent full,
state Corrections Department statistics show.

"You would have to gear up quickly, and this is not a business where you
can gear up quickly," Austin said.

Austin was the main speaker at a meeting of the Joint Committee on
Accountability in Government.

Most of the state's private prisons are owned by the companies that operate
them, so the state can't control what those companies do with the prisons,
Austin said.

The state's high dependence on private prisons -- almost 24 percent of
Oklahoma's inmates are housed in private prisons -- could hurt the state if
a company folds or ends its contract with the state, Austin said.

According to 2001 U.S. Justice Department statistics, only three states
housed a higher percentage of their inmates in private prisons than
Oklahoma. Those same statistics showed that only one state -- Texas --
housed more inmates in private prisons than did Oklahoma.

The number of Oklahoma inmates in private prisons has dropped since 2001,
going from 6,658 to 5,453 as of Jan. 27, according to Corrections
Department figures. The current number represents 23.9 percent of
Oklahoma's prison population.

But the national average is about 6 percent, Austin said.

State Sen. Dick Wilkerson, D- Atwood, said those numbers, plus the fact
that the state hasn't increased money paid to prison companies since their
contracts began, could come back to haunt lawmakers.

"We have never given a per-diem increase since the contracts started. What
if they say, 'Guys, we can't do it'" at those rates, Wilkerson asked.

Austin said private prisons can build new prisons cheaper and faster than
can state governments, and can generally operate them as well or better.
But he also noted that private prisons, which usually are newer and have
less-experienced staffs, are more prone to misconduct, violence and drug
use among inmates.

He also said privatizing prisons can, at best, save between 5 percent and
10 percent for states, but sometimes costs are equal to or even more than
what states spend on prisons.

Oklahoma spends $46.55 per day to house each medium-security inmate at
state-run prisons, according to the Corrections Department. In private
prisons, which are all medium-security in Oklahoma, the state pays prison
companies between $40.82 and $45 a day for each inmate, figures show.

Larger savings can come by cutting inmate numbers through the probation and
parole process, Austin said.

By trimming the sentences of "low-risk" nonviolent offenders by two to
three months each, Texas was able to trim its prison population from
160,000 to 145,000 in one year, saving $80 million, Austin said. He added
that Oklahoma could cut its prison population by as much as 10 percent.

State Rep. Lucky Lamons, D- Tulsa, said officials need to be careful who is
classified as "low-risk."

"I don't want people to think that narcotics offenders are low-risk when
they're not," he said.