PRISON SYSTEM CRITICIZED

Oklahoma's corrections budget has more than doubled the last 10 years, and
some legislators think it's time to try out more innovative and less
expensive programs on some lawbreakers. The Corrections Department has an
inmate population of more than 22,552. It was 14,428 in 1992.

The Legislature appropriated nearly $400 million last session for the
Corrections Department to run the prison system, which includes public and
private prisons.

"You know, the obscenity is spending less than $5,000 to educate a child
and more than $20,000 on a felon. It just flies in the face of logic," said
Sen. Dick Wilkerson, chairman of the Senate subcommittee that deals with
the Corrections Department.

Wilkerson, a former Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent and deputy
director, is among lawmakers who question the value of pouring more money
into corrections.

Wilkerson, D-Atwood, has been a leader in developing community sentencing
and drug court programs to divert some criminal offenders from the prison
system and steer them away from crime.

No other state agency's budget has increased in the way the corrections'
budget has, said Sen. Cal Hobson, D- Lexington, vice chairman of the Senate
Appropriations Committee.

This session, the Corrections Department wants $46 million more just to
finish the fiscal year, which ends June 30.

The more spent on corrections, the less programs such as education, roads,
health and mental health receive, legislators say.

Finding money for corrections has been the norm since 1973 when a riot
destroyed much of the areas where inmates were housed at the state
penitentiary at McAlester. Oklahoma didn't have many prisons then.

The riot, at the time the nation's costliest in terms of financial losses
to the state, forced the Legislature to spend more money on inmate housing.

About that time, Oklahoma's prison system also came under federal court
supervision, which forced the state to spend even more to meet court
guidelines on such things as better housing conditions for inmates and
medical care.

The corrections budget continued to grow, and so did the number of inmates
going behind the walls.

"If the penitentiary worked, why haven't we stamped out crime?" asked
Wilkerson, a former Marine who tracked down his share of bad guys when he
was an OSBI agent.

After taking office, Gov. Frank Keating successfully promoted the use of
private prisons for housing some of Oklahoma's inmates. Although the state
doesn't have to build the private prisons, it does have to pay for housing
its inmates in them.

Sen. Herb Rozell, who's spent much of his Senate career dealing with
corrections department problems and budgets, has never believed private
prisons were worth it.

He fought private prisons when the Legislature embraced them early in
Keating's administration.

"I said if they let private prisons in, they'll set their own fees on the
cost to operate. It's inevitable," Rozell said.

Private prisons have almost 26 percent of the state's inmates now, he said.

If they want to raise prices, there's not much anyone can do about it, he said.

"Anytime you have more than 15 percent in private prison, you're in
trouble," Rozell said. "The reason is, if you get into a problem (with
private prisons), you don't have any place to take your prisoners."

The state pays $43 per day per inmate for housing in private prisons. The
Corrections Department would like to raise that by 7 percent. This would
include money for raises for private prison guards. State correctional
officers got raises last session.

The state spends about $50 per day per inmate in its public prisons.

Rep. Jari Askins, D-Duncan, a former judge, said private prisons solved a
major inmate housing problem for Oklahoma in the mid-1990s.

Because of overcrowding, a large number of offenders were on early release
programs even though they hadn't reached their parole dates, she said.

"The decision to accept the use of private prison beds eliminated the state
from the obligation of having to build and maintain those beds," she said.

The private vendors could build prisons faster and gave the state the
ability to put offenders where they needed to be, she said.

"I don't like having to rely on the private prisons because with the
numbers we are housing there, the state could easily be held hostage by the
private companies. They know we need their beds," Askins said.

Wilkerson and other legislators believe community sentencing programs and
drug courts for nonviolent offenders will help slow the march of inmates
into the state prison system.

Community sentencing programs, begun as a pilot program in 2000, offer
education, counseling and treatment for nonviolent offenders who live and
work in the community. They are under supervision a maximum of three years.
Fifty-nine counties now have community sentencing programs, which, so far,
have a five percent failure rate.

Only 2,800 people have gone through community sentencing so far. The
program operates with a $5 million budget.

Drug courts, begun in 1995, are operating in 23 counties. The programs
currently have about 2,000 people in them.

"Right now we have enough people in drug court to fill a prison and a
half," said JoAnn Bronstad, state drug court coordinator.

The budget for the drug court program is $2.6 million, which includes money
for treatment, testing and administration, Bronstad said.

Those involved in drug courts include judges, prosecutors, probation
personnel, police officers, mental health and health professionals, and
educators.

Offenders brought into drug court usually have drug-related charges such as
bogus checks, forging prescriptions and burglary.

They undergo counseling and treatment and close supervision, which includes
random drug testing.

The success rate is between 79 percent to 82 percent.

Last session, the governor and lawmakers approved a bill to help reduce the
number of people going to prison for nonviolent crimes. Keating and House
Republican leader Fred Morgan helped Wilkerson and others pass the bill.

The bill raised the felony limit for certain property crimes, including
writing bogus checks and embezzlement, from $50 to $500.

Wilkerson said old-fashioned politics is part of the problem with the
corrections system.

"I think right now the big problem we have in the area of corrections is we
all, Democrats and Republicans, try to demagogue the issue," Wilkerson said.

When politicians talk about crime, they talk about the heinous crimes, the
high profile murders, Wilkerson said.

But a high percentage of the prison population is made up of nonviolent
offenders.

In the 2001 fiscal year, 81 percent of those sent to the Corrections
Department were sentenced for a nonviolent offense, the Corrections
Department said.

Wilkerson's perspective on crime: "I know there are bad guys, and then
there are nuisances."

Alternative programs such as community sentencing and drug courts could
benefit nonviolent offenders, he said.

Asked where the state is headed regarding corrections and its burgeoning
budget, Wilkerson said: "I'm not sure we know where we're headed because
you know, there's a perception out there is that we all have some kind of
master plan. I think that's just silly."

If Oklahoma continues on its current path regarding corrections, it will
keep pumping hundred of millions of dollars into the prison system, he said.

Rep. James Dunegan, D- Calera, chairman of the House subcommittee on public
safety and transportation, believes that getting tough on crime is working.

"Yeah, it's expensive, but we're doing this in the best interests of
Oklahomans," he said.

Hobson refers to the Corrections Department as the elephant in the living
room that nobody wants to talk about it.

In 1980, Oklahoma had 4,500 inmates in prison, he said. Twenty-two years
later, it's increased 450 percent.

In that same time, the state population probably has increased by 15
percent, Hobson said.

"But we are a law and order crowd as you know, and you get to pay the
piper," he said.