OK DOC Cuts Back on Community Level Beds
In a cost-cutting move, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections is eliminating some of its community-level beds in Tulsa. The agency has canceled a contract with Avalon Correctional Services for beds to house offenders put on public works crews in Tulsa, department Director Justin Jones said. The offenders are being moved to other facilities. Story reported in Tulsa World.
Avalon President Brian Costello said the contract involves about 75 offenders. With those beds empty, the company will have trouble keeping its building open, he said.
“We are exploring some options to try to find a different population to go in there. It doesn’t look promising,” Costello said.
Jones said the state inmates should be out of Avalon’s building at 1727 Charles Page Blvd. by about Sept. 1. The department also closed the Muskogee Community Corrections Center effective Aug. 1, Jones said. It had about 87 beds. Those offenders were moved to centers in Mangum and Healdton and to vacant halfway houses.
“What we are doing now is looking at where we can add beds at existing facilities so we might have the possibility of consolidation,” Jones said.
Community level is considered to be less than minimum security. The closures in Tulsa and Muskogee are among a number of cost-cutting measures by the department, Jones said, adding that they will save about $2 million. More closures could be on the horizon, he said. Other cost-cutting measures include employee furloughs, voluntary buyouts and program cuts.
The Department of Corrections’ budget for fiscal year 2011 is $462 million, down from $503 million in 2010. The agency is seeking a supplemental appropriation of up to $40 million, Jones said. At a time when the department has less money available, the state’s inmate population is growing.
The department had a net offender growth of 721 inmates in the last fiscal year, Jones said. The agency is furloughing employees one day a month from July through February.
“DOC employees are furloughing to pay for net offender growth and unfunded mandates,” Jones said.
“So, if we don’t get a supplemental in February, the message to our employees would be that they are expected to take pay cuts to pay for net offender growth.”
The Oklahoma Public Employees Association is calling on legislative leaders to come to an agreement about the supplemental funding.
“This would allow Director Jones to stop the furloughs, which are crushing the morale of our public safety employees,” said Sterling Zearley, the OPEA’s executive director.
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