After waiting about two hours to appear before a Tulsa County special judge on his child support case, Jemal Rawlings spent less than 30 seconds at the bench.

“He’s in compliance,” said an attorney with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. Report by Tulsa World.

Rawlings smiled in relief as he headed back to his new job.

“The less time you’re in there, the better things are going,” he said.

Rawlings spent two years in prison on a drug trafficking conviction, was released in 2009 and is completing his parole this month.

Even though he swore off drugs and his once wild lifestyle, he was at risk of more incarceration because he was not paying child support.

“When you come out of prison, you are facing a lot of issues like housing and transportation,” he said. “Plus, you’re a felon, and it’s hard to find work. And you’ve got to pay child support and the court fees you owe.”

Rawlings found minimum-wage work at labor jobs but kept falling behind and missing payments. He has four children with different mothers.

“It’s hard, but it’s the bed we made so we’re lying in it,” he said. “It felt bad when I didn’t have a job and couldn’t provide for them. It was really bad.”

After spending a weekend in jail in January 2010 for contempt, the judge referred Rawlings to a DHS court liaison. Rawlings owes thousands in back support.

DHS started adding court liaisons to its child support enforcement divisions about four years ago to help clients with community resources for landing a job. The liaison can also review the case for possible modification recommendations. There are 17 liaisons statewide.

Tulsa County’s liaison also serves as the case manager for the Prison Re-entry Initiative, which is offered to inmates who are being released in the county. The federal grant is $100,000 a year for three years, set to expire next year.

In Tulsa County, 14 former inmates are participating in the prison re-entry program.

Rawlings qualified for the re-entry initiative and completed a job training program with Goodwill Industries. He went from earning about $8 an hour to $12 an hour in a billing department for a law firm.

“It’s the best job I’ve ever had,” he said. “Without this program, without a doubt I’d be in jail for not paying child support. I always felt like DHS was about taking anything we get. But with the court liaison, I feel like I have a friend in the courtroom. I like knowing there is someone on the inside who is helping me out.”

DHS managing attorney John M. Sharp said child support has undergone a transformation in the past few years, moving to a customer service model and creating partnerships with judges and other state agencies.

“This is not your grandfather’s child support,” Sharp said. “The approach and attitude has changed to help the parties. We don’t represent the custodial or noncustodial parent. We represent the child.”

An emphasis on child support collections began in the mid-1990s as part of welfare reform – more collections means less reliance on government benefits. Until 2009, the state steadily increased collections, setting a record each year.

With a slight dip in fiscal year 2010, collections hit an all-time high last fiscal year, which ended in June, with $318 million – up from $96 million in 1998.

Oklahoma ranks third in the nation in child-support collections growth in the past decade.

But with this stepped-up enforcement came some fear and push-back from people owing support.

Robyn Tollefson, Tulsa County’s court liaison, said noncustodial parents are skeptical when they first hear of the prisoner re-entry and court liaison programs.

“So many think it’s a trap, and we have to explain we really are here to help,” Tollefson said.

The DHS role is to arrange for the establishment of paternity, find parents who owe support and serve as a clearinghouse for payments, which provides a record. The agency can revoke state licenses and intercept money from sources such as income tax refunds and worker’s compensation.

Judges issue orders setting the amounts and can order jail time.

By adding more social work, noncustodial parents can find resources at DHS when they fall on hard economic times.

“We don’t want to put anyone in jail or use the enforcement tools at our disposal,” Sharp said.

By taking care of the money disagreements, more focus can be placed on building parent-child relationships.

“I’d love to see more reunification with kids,” Sharp said. “We have too many kids out there without a father and mother in their lives. We want them to re-establish contact with their children.”

Rawlings said he was close to his family, went into the military after graduating from high school and attended nearly two years of college on the GI bill.

But, at age 33, he had his first child and got into the party life.

“I had some wild years there,” he said. “But this is my responsibility, I understand that. ”

He is looking at buying a house through a military assistance program and is planning to start his own business.

Rawlings said money has been a wedge in relationships with his former girlfriends.

“Child support can be bad on relationships. It’s not about having issues with the children, it’s about having issues with the mothers,” he said. “We all love our children, that’s why we show up to court. And when I look at my paycheck now, I think ‘Hey, it’s done. The payment’s made.’ I love that.”

He wants his children to learn from the lessons he is living.

“My kids are young, but I’ll be open and honest with them and be an example,” he said. “Some things I did great, and some things I did wrong. But I want them understand there are repercussions and consequences behind our actions.”

Even though child support takes about 60 percent of his paycheck, Rawlings said it’s worth it.

“My life is less stressful because there is a way to help get a better job,” he said. “There might not be much left after I get paid, but I’m taking care of my kids now. I feel good about being able to do that.”

Tammy Community Programs, Oklahoma, Re-Entry

There appears to be nothing about “cheap labor” that cities don’t like.

Ears perked up recently when the state Department of Corrections said it would be reviving its inmate labor program and that about 40 inmates at the going rate of about $2 a day would soon be available for landscaping and cleanup tasks. Report by Tulas World.

Jenks, Glenpool, Collinsville, Owasso and Tulsa have expressed an interest in the program.

Jenks and Glenpool have already approved DOC contracts.

Due to budget constraints, the DOC canceled its contract last year with Avalon Correctional Services, which housed the community-level beds for offenders on public work crews.

DOC spokesman Jerry Massie said those inmates are now being housed by Avalon at a halfway house at 302 W. Archer St.

Jenks Public Works Director Robert Carr said that Jenks started using nonviolent and non-sexual offenders to supplement its workforce in 2006. It was discontinued in June 2009.

“Since that time, we’ve really missed those people to support us,” he said. “There’s a lot of competition with other communities for this type program.”

Carr said they are hoping to get a seven-person crew for about $1,170 a month to help them with grounds and right-of-way maintenance, landscaping, weed eating and other jobs.

“The communities in Tulsa area have been hurt by not being able to have the program,” Carr said. “That labor pool was very helpful to us.”

Carr said they didn’t have significant negative issues with inmates in the past and that they had even ended up hiring some of them.

City Manager Mike Tinker said offenders like working in Jenks.

“These folks are convicts, but we treat them with respect,” he said.

The inmates do jobs that might not get done otherwise, Tinker said.

He said inmate crews will be useful in cleanup work and renovation projects at the former state Department of Public Safety building, which is planned as the future site for the Police Department.

Deputy Director Ann Domin of the Indian Nations Council of Governments has been in discussions on the issue with DOC Director Justin Jones.

“What this program does is it not only allows cities to have an inexpensive source of labor for maintenance and grounds keeping functions, but it also is really in the best interest of the public as well because it means that inmates are working, rather than sitting in prison cell all day long,” Domin said.

“They are being paid very nominal amount but that will help them when they are released, and it prepares them for an actual job when they are released.”

Owasso spokeswoman Chelsea Harkins said the city is a strong advocate of the program and will be discussing it in the coming weeks.

“Owasso was the first city in the metropolitan area to benefit from the program. It saved us thousands of dollars over the last 20 years,” she said.

Tammy Oklahoma, Prison Workers, Work Programs

A bill that could result in swift deportation of illegal aliens currently in Oklahoma state prisons has passed in the state Senate.  Story from News8.

House Bill 2245 passed with a vote of 43 to 0 in the Senate Thursday morning. The bill would create the “Oklahoma Criminal Illegal Alien Rapid Repatriation Act of 2009″.
The act would allow the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to immediately send inmates who are in the country illegally to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation.  The bill applies only to criminals who are in prison for non-violent crimes who have served at least half of their sentence.

“The people of Oklahoma should not have to pay the tab for the federal government’s failures,” said the bill’s author, Randy Terrill after its unanimous passage in the House last month. “The Criminal Illegal Alien Rapid Repatriation Act will shift the financial burden of imprisoning these inmates to the federal government and save the state more than $3 million.”
Terrill says there are currently more than five hundred illegal immigrants in state prisons and that nearly 70-percent of them are eligible for the proposed deportation program.   The state currently pays about 20-thousand dollars per year to house each inmate.

House Bill 2245 now returns to the House for final consideration.

vericatrajkova Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens, Oklahoma

Idaho Department of Correction officials say a decline in the number of state inmates has made room for 130 prisoners to be brought back to the Gem State from Oklahoma.  Report from the AP.

The inmates arrived in Idaho on Monday.

Idaho has been relying on out-of-state prisons to house its inmates for a decade. But Department of Correction Director Brent Reinke said in a prepared statement Monday that the criminal justice system – from the courts to the treatment providers to the parole board – are functioning more efficiently. He says that’s led to an unprecedented decline in the state’s prison population, with 100 fewer inmates in state custody compared to last July.

Now 188 Idaho inmates remain at the Oklahoma prison. They are expected to be brought back by this fall.

vericatrajkova California, Idaho, Oklahoma, Overcrowding

Senate leaders in Oklahoma have requested information about the costs of closing some older state prisons, but say there are no immediate plans to shutter the sites.  This report from NewsOK.

Last week, the state Department of Corrections sent Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn Coffee a report detailing costs of closing three medium-security prisons. The prisons studied were selected by the department.  The report examined the costs of closing Mack Alford Correctional Center in Stringtown, James Crabtree Correctional Center in Helena and the Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite.In an April 1 letter written to Coffee, department Director Justin Jones said the prisons were studied because two were not designed to be prisons and one is the oldest facility …

Coffee said his request is part of an ongoing process to get information about facilities in the prison system and looking for efficiencies. An independent study of the bed space and facility conditions is expected to be turned over to legislative leaders by May.  “No decisions have been made and won’t be until we have the study completed,” Coffee said. “We’re simply collecting information.”

vericatrajkova Economic Issues, Oklahoma

Oklahoma prison officials say as many as 1,000 California inmates soon could be arriving at a private prison in Sayre, OK.  Report from NewsOnSix.

Oklahoma Department of Corrections officials say the mostly medium-security inmates will begin arriving at the North Fork Correctional Facility April 16. The private prison in Beckham County has a capacity of 2,400 beds but currently houses a little more than 1,400 inmates.   Officials from Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America, which owns the Sayre facility, and the California Department of Corrections would not confirm the transfer of inmates from California to Oklahoma.

About 470 of the inmates at Sayre are from Wyoming and Idaho, and both of those states plan to return those offenders to their home states later this year. The rest of the inmates at the Sayre facility are from California. DOC private prisoner administrator Renee Watkins says none of the out-of-state prisoners held at Sayre will be maximum-security inmates.

vericatrajkova CCA, California, Oklahoma, Private Prisons

A full day of mediation failed to produce a new city-county jail agreement between Tulsa County and its largest city. But retired Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Daniel Boudreau, who served as the mediator, said late Wednesday that 11 hours of negotiations yielded considerable progress.  The Tulsa World reports:

The main sticking point has been whether the city should begin paying a direct fee to house its inmates in the Tulsa Jail and, if so, how much.  The haggling began in March 2008, when the county first proposed that the city begin paying $54.13 per inmate per day to house its inmates in the jail.   Under the former agreement, which expired Nov. 30, the city paid no direct fee to house as many as 116 municipal inmates a day in the jail. In return, the city provided certain assets and services to the county for a nominal fee or at no cost …

County officials have argued that a direct fee is necessary because of the rising cost of maintaining and refurbishing the jail.  In addition, they say, the assets and services provided by the city under the old agreement have no current value to the Tulsa County Criminal Justice Authority, which oversees operation of the jail.

vericatrajkova County-City Issues, OK Tulsa County, Oklahoma

Sequoyah County OK Commissioners say the county jail needs more money, Sheriff Ron Lockhart said the sheriff’s office needs more money, and so the county officials are considering a June 9 election on a sales tax.  Reported by the Sequoyah County Times.

The Sequoyah County Jail, in operation since 2003, is losing money because of the lack of prisoners housed on behalf of the state. The county receives $31.50 per prison per day for non-violent inmates housed for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC). But the numbers of prisoners ODOC has farmed out to the county has dropped from an average of 38 to 21 per day, Christine Calbert, jail administrator said.   Calbert said “I talked to the state today. They said they are low on prisoners. It’s not anything we are doing wrong.”   Tabor said Tuesday that ODOC told the county Tuesday they will be pulling five to six inmates from the county jail next week, and at least another two during the following week, causing an even larger deficit.

Calbert said the jail needs about $850,000 a year to operate, an amount which was bolstered by housing ODOC prisoners.   At an average of 38 ODOC prisoners per day, the county was taking in $37,050 per month. With 21 ODOC prisoners now in the jail, the county is collecting $20,475 per month, which will drop even further with the loss of another seven to nine ODOC prisoners … The jail has room for 114 prisoners, and, as of Monday, had 83 prisoners, Calbert said …

Sheriff Ron Lockhart suggested to the members of the Sequoyah County Criminal Justice Authority last month that the county consider asking for a sales tax for the sheriff’s office and jail operations …  Housing federal prisoners would also raise money for the jail, he said. But Calbert said the county jail does not meet federal standards — most particularly a large exercise area — and cannot house federal prisoners.

vericatrajkova County-State Issues, Economic Issues, OK Sequoyah County

Seventeen percent of the buildings at Oklahoma’s correctional facilities need major work or need to be torn down, according to a summary of an assessment obtained by the Tulsa World.

The initial facility assessment ranked the 402 buildings at the state’s prisons on a scale of one to four.   A one ranking meant a building was new or minimal repairs were needed, while a four meant a building needed major renovation, replacement or to be torn down. Rep. Randy Terrill, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, said 17 percent of the buildings earned a three or four rating, while more than 80 percent ranked one or two.  “I think the report mostly confirms what we suspected,” said Terrill.  “Department of Corrections facilities are not in the best or absolute worst of shape.”

The article at Tulsa World goes into speculation about how this report is linked to the privatization movement in Oklahoma.

vericatrajkova Oklahoma, Prison and Jail Construction, Private Prisons

Rural Oklahoma counties have some of the highest per capita rates of sending women to prison, according to a report released by the state Corrections Department.  Report by NewsOK.

The counties with the highest per capita rates of women in prison were Stephens, Grady, Pittsburg and Custer. The figures are based on the number of women going to prison for more than a year compared to the female population in each county.

In many cases, nonurban counties had a higher rate because they have fewer alternatives to incarceration, said Laura Pitman, female offender operations deputy director.   “It certainly has an impact on a county’s ability to divert offenders,” Pitman said.    Access to more community mental health and substance abuse treatment services could also cut down on the number of women going to prison, Pitman said …

While the smaller counties had a higher rate of incarceration based on population, Oklahoma, Tulsa and Comanche counties still sent the largest overall total number of women to prisons, according to the report.  Oklahoma leads the nation in the per capita number of women in prison — Oklahoma imprisons 131 women per 100,000 women. The national average is 69, according to U.S. Department of Justice statistics … In the past three years, the number of women in prison has grown steadily by at least 10 percent each year, according to the report. Without significant changes, the female prison population could grow to as high as 3,028 by 2013, according to the report. In 2008, there were 2,721 women in prison, DOC records show.

vericatrajkova Female Inmates, Oklahoma