SENTENCING BOARD TOLD PRISONERS TO INCREASE

State officials expect an additional 1,500 Oklahomans in prison two years
from now. Members of Oklahoma's Sentencing Commission were given that
prediction Thursday, along with another showing a more gradual prison
population increase in the coming decade.

They were also shown a potential way to limit the expected growth with
alternative sentencing programs for nonviolent offenders.

The bottom line is more money will be needed to handle the state's
corrections needs regardless of what path is followed, officials said.

"More money is the key," said Rep. Jari Askins, D-Duncan, chairwoman of the
Sentencing Commission.

"We are going to have to find additional supplemental funds for our
corrections system for the remainder of this current fiscal year, and
that's before we can even begin to look at corrections in the coming one,"
Askins said.

The report on prison population increases for the next two years includes
data from both the state Corrections Department and the Oklahoma Criminal
Justice Resource Center.

The 10-year forecast and an alternative model figuring in the impact of
presumptive sentencing programs is calculated by the Criminal Justice
Resource Center.

The Oklahoma prison population will grow by 762 beds in fiscal year 2003,
from 22,674 to 23,436. The estimated additional cost to house those
prisoners is $11.4 million, center officials said. The 2003 fiscal year
begins July 1.

The center projects Oklahoma prisons will grow by another 648 beds, from
23,436 to 24,084, in fiscal year 2004. The estimated additional cost to
house those prisoners is $9.7 million.

The resource center puts Oklahoma's prison population at 25,981 by fiscal
year 2012 -- despite recent state law changes making numerous small
theft-related crimes misdemeanors instead of felonies.

Askins attributed the anticipated increase to several factors, including a
more aggressive effort to discover and shut down methamphetamine labs,
truth-in-sentencing legislation that requires inmates to serve more of
their prison sentences, and the elimination of home detention programs.

A significant percentage of prisoners is serving time for drug-or
alcohol-related offenses and are not getting treatment for their
addictions, she said.

Also, Askins said, an infusion of cash would be needed for treatment
programs if the alternative sentencing proposal ever became law.

The justice resource center provided a sample proposal of the law, proposed
in Gov. Frank Keating's budget, to the sentencing commission Thursday.

It would allow a judge to send an offender into a community or drug
treatment center if he or she were charged with a nonviolent offense and
had never been convicted of one.

If everyone eligible went into community or drug treatment programs rather
than prison, the justice center estimates Oklahoma's prison population
would drop substantially.

"If we are going to truly implement a presumptive sentencing program --
alternative treatment programs for nonviolent drug and alcohol offenders --
then the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse would need more
money to operate the programs to help these people," she said.