LAWMAKERS APPROVE PRISON FUNDS

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Legislature pumped another $9.8 million into
Oklahoma's prison system Monday, but lawmakers grumbled about the high cost
of corrections and vowed to cut it.

Meeting in special session, the House and Senate approved an emergency
spending measure to prevent next month's planned furlough of more than
4,800 corrections workers until April, when the Legislature's regular
session will be under way.

But lawmakers said the measure only escalates the pace of corrections
spending in Oklahoma. Prison costs have more than doubled since Gov. Frank
Keating was elected in 1994, from $172 million to more than $407 million.

"This is not the solution," said Rep. Debbie Blackburn, D-Oklahoma City.
"We're tough on crime in this state. But we're going to have to be reasonable."

Keating said he will sign the emergency measure. But the Corrections
Department will still have a $27 million funding shortfall because of the
state's rising inmate population.

"No other budget has exploded at that level," said Senate President Pro Tem
designate Cal Hobson, D-Lexington.

The emergency funds will postpone the unpaid furlough of state prison
guards to help offset a cut in the agency's budget due to a statewide
budget shortfall. Officials said furloughing guards could jeopardize public
safety.

A Department of Justice study released in July said Oklahoma has one of the
highest incarceration rates in the nation. As of Monday, 22,957 inmates
were incarcerated in public and private prisons in the state, Corrections
Department spokesman Jerry Massie said.

Hobson said many of the state's inmates are serving time for drug, alcohol
and nonviolent crimes and could be participating in substance abuse and
community corrections programs.

"What has not been addressed is alternatives," Hobson said. "There are ways
to punish people without taking the most expensive approach."

He said reducing corrections costs should be one of Gov.-elect Brad Henry's
chief goals when he takes office in January.

The spending measure was approved 40-1 in the Senate and 95-0 in the House.
But the measure raised many questions during lawmakers' one-hour special
session.

Sen. Frank Shurden, D-Henryetta, cast the only no vote. He questioned
whether Keating's efforts to funnel state inmates into private prisons
instead of less expensive state prisons had inflated the agency's budget.

"There's plenty of blame to go around, us included," said Sen. Dick
Wilkerson, D-Atwood, one of the measure's authors.

"We're just putting more money down a rat hole," Shurden said later.

Sen. Jerry Smith, R-Tulsa, questioned whether moving 1,000 state inmates
into community corrections programs would save the state $16 million in
prison costs.

"There's lots of things that can be done that aren't being done," Wilkerson
said.

The Oklahoma Public Employees Association, which requested the emergency
spending bill, has proposed a series of cost-cutting steps including the
release of 3,600 nonviolent offenders and returning 1,150 prisoners from
private to state-operated prisons.