Senate could endorse bond for new prisons, chair says

A legislative budget leader gave the clearest indicator yet that the state Senate might be willing to approve a bond package to build new prisons.

At a Senate Appropriations and Budget Committee hearing Tuesday, Department of Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh said he’s not seen much of an appetite in the House or Senate to adopt a bond measure that could total more than $800 million.

Committee Chair Kim David, however, noted that the Legislature adopted a $58.5 million bond package last year to build a new state health lab.

“We do have an appetite if the need is there, and if you can come to us with a plan,” David said. “With a need this great, and it’s a one-time need, that’s the type of thing we should be bonding, is facilities.”

She asked Allbaugh to provide plans for where a prison would be, how much it would cost and other details so lawmakers can make their decision.

Oklahoma recently

paid off a bond that was costing the state $36 million a year. David said the annual cost of a bond for two new prisons likely would be less. Most of the new money requested by the Department of Corrections this year would build male and female medium-security prisons.

State-owned correctional facilities currently are filled to 153 percent of capacity. With contracted and private prison beds included, the statewide prison population is currently at 115 percent of capacity, Allbaugh said.

The department faces several problems, he said, that have festered over years and decades.

First, the agency cannot retain enough staff to look over prisoners in remote, rural prisons. On a typical day, Allbaugh said, his correctional officers can face 79 to 115 inmates per officer. During a visit to North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre last weekend, he said, there were 17 officers on duty to keep watch over 2,261 prisoners.

“Our folks are only armed with their selfdefense training, a can of pepper spray, a wing and a prayer if they get in trouble,” he said.

Prison guard pay starts out at less than $13 an hour, and more than half of the correctional officers hired a year ago have already left.

“We’re losing the backbone of our system, and if we don’t invest in these people they’re not going to hang around,” Allbaugh told the budget committee.

Another big problem facing Allbaugh is how to maintain the prisons he has now. Part of the agency’s budget request is $107 million for maintenance on buildings that weren’t originally designed to house inmates, he said. Having state-of-the-art facilities would lower maintenance costs and ease the stress put on correctional officers. It could also reduce staffing requirements.

“I know that our budget request is very, very large. I can save a ton of money on old, dilapidated buildings that we’re holding together by building two new facilities,” Allbaugh said. “We need this relief.”