State’s inmate count breaks record
Oklahoma’s overcrowded prison system reached a record 63,009 inmates at the end of August — prompting state Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh to issue a dire warning.
“I am concerned, very concerned,” Allbaugh said. “We need to do something before something seriously happens . ... The state will end up paying a price and I’m hoping that price of delaying criminal justice reform does not come in the way of costing individuals their lives.”
Oklahoma’s prisons are packed and overflowing, with space designed for programs gutted and being used for inmate bunk beds that are spaced 8 to 12 inches apart, Allbaugh said.
“That breeds contempt and unhappy inmates,” Allbaugh said, adding it also creates a danger for all Oklahomans,
since 94 percent of inmates return to society at some point. Those inmates are not receiving the help and training they need to change their behavior, he said.
But it is not just the overcrowding that has Allbaugh concerned. It’s the unrestrained rate of growth.
The prison system has added 2,000 inmates in just the last 8 ½ months, he said.
Outpacing predictions
That’s a growth rate that is nearly four times faster than the growth rate projected by a governor’s task force on criminal justice reform when it issued a report last February.
The task force warned that unless Oklahoma changed its ways, the state was on pace to add more than 7,200 inmates over the next 10 years, which would require three new prisons and cost the state Joe Allbaugh
an additional $1.9 billion in capital expenditures and operating costs.
To avoid that growth and lower the prison population, the task force recommended a series of reforms that were written into legislation supported by the governor. The most meaningful recommendations called for reducing sentences for nonviolent crimes while increasing funding for alternative mental health and substance abuse treatment programs.
Four criminal justice reform measures passed the Legislature and were signed by the governor, but none of the four that passed were ones that would have an impact on the size of the prison population, Allbaugh said.
Bills that would have had an impact failed to make it through the House following heated discussions about whether some of the so-called “nonviolent crimes” that were being considered for reduced sentences were really violent crimes that should have been excluded from eligibility.
“The bills that could have had an impact were all killed,” Allbaugh said. “That doesn’t mean that they were all right, but we need to have this ... discussion because there are a lot of people in prison that shouldn’t even be there.”
Reaction to record
Disclosure of Oklahoma’s record prison population prompted concerned comments from both the governor and executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma.
“It is unacceptable, though unsurprising, that the Oklahoma Department of Corrections continues to set new records on the number of humans suffering under our current system,” said Ryan Kiesel, executive director of ACLU of Oklahoma. “Oklahoma’s criminal justice system is an unsustainable, indisputable human rights catastrophe.”
Kiesel criticized Oklahoma’s political leaders for failing to follow through with implementing the types of reforms that Oklahoma voters supported when they passed State Questions 780 and 781. Those state questions called for making certain low-level crimes misdemeanors instead of felonies and for using money saved by incarcerating fewer people to help fund drug treatment and mental health programs.
“As more and more Oklahomans are consumed by our political leaders’ insatiable appetite for mass incarceration, we move further from safety and justice and closer to reaching the now inevitable distinction of becoming the world’s largest jailer,” Kiesel said.
“Today’s news further demonstrates that reforming the system is no longer merely urgent, but now constitutes an undeniable emergency,” he said.
Gov. Mary Fallin said she is “very concerned about the ever-increasing population in our corrections system.”
“Criminal justice reform remains at the top of my agenda,” Fallin said. “I will continue to seek sensible reforms in our criminal justice system that keep dangerous criminals in the system, but provides appropriate solutions to support nonviolent offenders.”
Fallin said many states have demonstrated that it is possible to reduce imprisonment while also reducing crime.
“By ensuring expensive prison beds are used for serious, violent offenders and reinvesting savings into programs that cut crime and recidivism, these states are getting a better public safety return on their corrections spending,” she said.
Other options?
Allbaugh said all Oklahomans need to take notice.
“What ought to be shocking to every Oklahoman is we are second in the country in the number (percentage) of people that we incarcerate, ... 715 individuals per 100,000,” Allbaugh said. “We’re already number one in the incarceration rate of women.”
Allbaugh said he is considering what to do about the immediate crisis and hopes to have a recommendation for the Department of Correction’s Board of Directors on Sept. 25.
“We’re looking at a lot of options,” he said. “There are some statutes on the books that give DOC and the director some ability to expedite some folks through the system.”
Of the 63,009 inmates in the Oklahoma prison system, 26,730 are incarcerated, 34,710 are under supervision (GPS monitored, community supervision, probation/parole) and 1,569 are backed up in county jails awaiting transport to the state prison system, officials reported.