The Oklahoma Department of Corrections has reduced its staff by 59 as it struggles to deal with the effects of the state’s $729 million budget shortfall. Report from Bartlesville Live.

Corrections Department spokesman Jerry Massie said Friday that even though the agency is slated to receive a supplemental appropriation from the Legislature, officials still had to fill an $11 million gap after being told to trim their budgets by 10 percent for the rest of the fiscal year.

Massie says DOC Director Justin Jones told the Oklahoma Board of Corrections that 39 of the affected workers accepted early retirement buyouts. He says no corrections officers were included in the cuts.

Massie says the agency received a $503 million appropriation for the fiscal year, but the cuts mean officials will have about $48 million less to spend.

janchavarie Oklahoma, Personnel Issues

With many employees in both the public and private sectors set for furlough from their jobs, at least one group of state employees has seen a reprieve — at least for now. News reported in the McAlester News-Capital.

Furloughs which had been scheduled to begin next month for state Department of Corrections employees have been lifted at least until the beginning of the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1.

The planned furloughs were lifted due to an agreement between Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry and the state legislative leadership for a $7.2 million supplemental appropriation to the DOC.

In McAlester that means DOC employees at Oklahoma State Penitentiary, the Jackie Brannon Correctional Center, the District Three Probation and Parole offices and the DOC regional office, are no longer facing the furloughs, or unpaid days off work— at least until after June 30, when furloughs could come up again because of the new 2010-2011 budget.

janchavarie Oklahoma, Personnel Issues

Frustrated Board of Corrections members on Friday criticized what they called a lack of interest among lawmakers to fund the state prison system. News reported in the Tulsa World.

The Department of Corrections plans to begin furloughing all of its 4,514 employees starting in March to deal with budget cuts.

Some 119 employees took an early buyout offer as the agency worked to trim its budget, DOC Director Justin Jones said.

And if his budget is further cut by the minimum 7.5 percent he was told to expect in the next fiscal year, Jones said, the Corrections Department also will have to lay off 459 employees.

“That is not crying wolf,” Jones said during a regular Board of Corrections meeting at the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center.

The agency also may close some prisons by increasing capacity at others, he said.

State agencies have been told to reduce their budgets as a result of declining revenue.

The cuts had been 5 percent starting in August but rose to 10 percent for December and January. Assuming that the cuts revert to 5 percent in February and stay there until the end of the fiscal year on June 30, the agency will have cut $41 million from a $503 million budget, Jones said.

Since July 1, the Department of Correction has added 709 inmates, DOC chief of operations Ken Klinger said.

The prison system is operating at 100 percent capacity, Jones said.

The board’s suggestions on ways to curb the growing prison population and reduce costs don’t seem to interest lawmakers or state leaders, Corrections Board member David Henneke said.

Board member Robert Rainey said he was “surprised, shocked and dismayed” by the response the agency has gotten from the Legislature.

He said sentencing reform will come only after a federal judicial order requires lawmakers to spend money.

“The Legislature wants to incarcerate low-risk offenders and not pay for it,” Rainey said. “It is shameful. I am embarrassed.”

The Department of Corrections can’t do more with less forever, he said.

“At the end of the day, it is a failure of our leadership,” Rainey said.

Board member Ted Logan said he envisions a scenario in which someone is hurt or killed as a result of the cuts, followed by finger-pointing.

“I hope something gives before it reaches that point,” he said.

janchavarie Budgets, Oklahoma

You might be surprised to learn that abused and abandoned dogs are helping out in Oklahoma’s prisons, providing a way for hardened criminals to get a second chance. Story from ABC News.

Think of Unit 7 at Lexington Prison as a transfer station for thousands of inmates who enter the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Among those who enter the gates and live beyond the razor wire are men convicted of sex crimes, drugs and even murder.

With sentences from several months to life, hope is sometimes difficult to see. That is until, in walks a lady.

“She’s brought all that out you just want to be a nice person anymore,” says Wade Adams. “So, Lady has taught you to be a gentleman? Ahh. I think she has.”

Wade is still a work in progress. He’s doing time for murder. He trains dogs for placement with senior citizens and the disabled. He’s one of ten men who help rehabilitate abused and abandoned animals.

“And most of them do come here with some issues,” says Lee Fairchild who runs the program called Friends For Folks.

The dogs are trained in basic obedience and also housebroken. The animals live with the inmates for weeks sometimes months. Without question, the program is life changing. For the trainer, the dog, and folks like 84-year-old Artie Nixon.

She makes her way to a 30-pound border collie whom she wants to share her home.

“She’s scared right now,” Artie says. “But we’ll bond together. It won’t take too long,  a few days.”

“It’s a proven fact that when an elderly person or any person for that matter pets a dog, their blood pressure goes down. They start feeling a little bit better,” says Fairchild.

Artie’s health is changing and she needs companionship.

“Well with my problem of hard of hearing, I don’t always hear my door bell and I don’t always hear my telephone. So I know I’ll watch her expression and then I’ll find out what it is.”

But you say it’s just a dog? Well no, it isn’t. At times, it’s unclear who benefits most from the training, the dog or the inmate.

“It just makes them a lot more responsible and caring,” Fairchild says.

And better prepared for the outside world, and better equipped to handle their emotions — men like Larry Raffaell, who is already serving 33 years for murder and been denied parole more than a dozen times.

“I could watch TV and not get emotional at all, anymore anytime an emotional program comes on I’m finding I’m wiping tears, I got something in my eye,” he says.

Inmates like Larry learn to value another life and strangely it begins with an animal. Then they have to let it go.

“I hope I don’t cry. It’ll be alright. Hopefully, the next one comes in real soon.”

The Friends for Folks program costs four-thousand dollars a year to operate and the animals are free to qualifying applicants.

janchavarie Inmate Programs, Oklahoma

Pennsylvania is exploring the idea of housing 1,000 to 1,500 prison inmates in other states for the next four years as it completes an expansion of its own correctional facilities, a plan that has piqued the interest of states that are struggling with budget deficits.  Story from the Wall Street Journal.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections is currently in contact with five other states — Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, Oklahoma and Virginia — and has asked the states their specific proposals for housing the prisoners, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania corrections department said Thursday.

Michigan is actively pursuing a deal with Pennsylvania, according to Russell Marlan, a spokesman for Michigan’s Department of Corrections. The state has excess prison capacity and is looking to cut $120 million from its $2 billion annual prison budget. Bringing in prisoners from other states would also preserve hundreds of corrections jobs in the state with the highest unemployment rate in the nation. “We will be going after this aggressively,” Mr. Marlan said Thursday. The Obama administration is also considering housing some of the detainees being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in Michigan. The administration is in the process of determining whether a maximum security facility in Standish, Mich., could house terrorism suspects. An alternative is the federal prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Like, Michigan, Virginia is also facing deficits. On Tuesday, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said the state will close three correctional facilities due to budget woes. Kansas has considered shortening sentences for imprisoned criminals to cut costs and help close a budget gap.

“Nobody has said ‘yup, we’re going to do this,’” said Susan McNaughton, a Pennsylvania corrections spokeswoman. But Pennsylvania has already been forced to place 234 prison inmates in roughly a half a dozen county prisons, she said, due to overcrowding in prisons. “This will all have to be taken into consideration,” she said. “They’re looking at the opportunity that best fits them, and best fits fiscally,” said Mr. Marlan. “We are interested and we are going to respond.”

jakking Economic Issues, Michigan, Nevada, Oklahoma, Overcrowding, Pennsylvania, Virginia

The $400 million price tag attached last month to a proposed new or renovated Oklahoma County jail left county officials stunned and bewildered.  It also raised the question of whether the county missed its chance to fix the jail before the U.S. Justice Department steps in to correct problems that led to a scathing report last year on civil rights abuses at the lockup.  Report by NewsOK.

Sheriff John Whetsel put a doomed tax initiative before voters in 2003, a proposal he now admits was flawed and lacked accountability. Current and former county officials said the timing might have been right, but the politics of the day killed any chance for a successful fix. Now that county officials are united behind the cause, the price tag appears out of reach.

If the county can’t come up with a solution that is palatable to voters, the federal government could mandate changes that would go on the county’s property tax rolls without giving voters or local officials any say.  “I think certainly the DOJ (Justice Department) is saying that there has been a lack of political will to see this resolved,” District 2 Commissioner Brian Maughan said.  “They are saying collectively it’s not been there and they are tired of messing with us and will take it into their own hands, which is the grave risk we run,” he said.

Whetsel’s 2003 proposal would have established a permanent two-fifths-cent countywide sales tax which he estimated would bring in $30 million a year. Whetsel would have used the money to hire more employees for the jail and deputies for his enforcement activities. The proposal did not include money for jail renovations or any oversight for how the money could be used.   Voters shot it down by a 4-to-1 margin.  County officials at the time were sharply divided …

Voter distrust after mistakes in the jail’s 1991 construction made it almost impossible to come up with a successful proposal.  “I think there is truth to the fact that the citizens put a lot of faith in county officials many years ago and county officials let them down,” Whetsel said. “As honest as I believe the county officials are now as a group, people have a long memory.”

County officials are now unanimous in their efforts to fix the jail. A process that began shortly after the Justice Department’s report a year ago led the county to hire a group of engineers to develop a plan for fixing the jail’s problems. But the $400 million price tag the group came up with is unacceptable, Maughan said. All three commissioners agreed voters will never approve such a plan and have asked the engineers to significantly trim their proposal to make it more reasonable. “We have to do something,” Maughan said. “We have to make some last-ditch effort before we just concede and allow DOJ to come in and take over.”

jakking Economic Issues, Jail and Prison Construction, OK Oklahoma County, Oklahoma

Private prisons in Oklahoma soon could be housing maximum security inmates from other states under a new law that was approved in the waning days of the 2009 legislative session, according to a story at KFSM.

The language inserted in an omnibus corrections bill changes state policy that previously allowed only minimum and medium security from other states to be housed in state prisons.  House author Randy Terrill says several safeguards were put in place, including a policy that allows the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to review and approve inmates and the facilities where they will be housed.

But Judith Greene, director of the criminal justice research institute Justice Strategies, says such a policy change is a “recipe for disaster.”

jakking Maximum Security, Oklahoma, Private Prisons

The cost for a jail solution stuns Oklahoma County officials. Reported on NewsOK.

Oklahoma County commissioners were stunned Wednesday at

Oklahoma County Jail

the price tag for a new or renovated county jail — at least $391 million.

Commissioners had planned to bring a sales tax initiative before voters to pay for fixes to the jail. But after hearing cost estimates from the architects hired to come up with a plan, commissioners said they were pessimistic such a project would have any chance of winning voter approval unless major savings can be found.

“It’s very sobering,” District 3 Commissioner Ray Vaughn said. “We operated under the assumption that the renovation would be in the $120 million ballpark. What we see today is it’s not even in the same ZIP code.”

The county began looking at its options for renovating the jail after the U.S. Justice Department issued a scathing report on the jail’s conditions last year.

If the county doesn’t fix the problems on its own, the Justice Department could sue in federal court. Any changes mandated by a federal judge would go on the county’s property tax rolls.

The county hired an architectural team combining Frankfort Short Bruza Associates of Oklahoma City with international firm HOK. A criminal justice consultant firm, Pulitzer, Bogard & Associates, also helped with the plan.

The architects said renovating and expanding the jail to bring it up to code and add enough bed space for the next 20 years would cost $436.7 million.

They estimated building a new jail outside the downtown area on a 50-acre parcel of land would cost $391.1 million.

Curtis Pulitzer, principal of Pulitzer, Bogard & Associates, assured commissioners the cost estimate was as cheap as it could be for the jail to be brought to the proper standard.

District 2 Commissioner Brian Maughan said commissioners will work with the sheriff and the architects to see where costs might be reduced before the architects’ final report is presented in September.

Sheriff John Whetsel, who was out of town during Wednesday morning’s meeting, said he wasn’t surprised that building a new jail would be cheaper than renovating and expanding the existing jail because of all the problems he sees on a daily basis.

“But the amounts they delivered today — it’s shocking,” Whetsel said. “There has to be an effort to make this thing affordable. I think we just have to sit down and go back to the drawing board.”

janchavarie County-City Issues, Economic Issues, Jail and Prison Construction, OK Oklahoma County

The cash-strapped Oklahoma Department of Corrections has been able to offset the cost of feeding nearly 18,500 inmates daily because of an agricultural program that gives prisoners valuable skills, agency officials said.  Report from The Oklahoman.

In the past fiscal year, the agency’s Agriculture Services unit has earned more than $888,000 in profit from the sale of agriculture products such as beef, firewood and pecans, according to a report given to the Board of Corrections on Friday.   Ken Klinger, who oversees the unit, told board members the agency’s agriculture services not only makes a profit but gives inmates useful skills and occupies their time during incarceration.  “Making money on this is a side thing,” Klinger said. “The true value of this program is that we work with inmates and give them skills and help the agency save money on its food costs.”

Using vegetables or meat raised and processed within the prison system allows the agency to better control its daily cost of feeding inmates, said Justin Jones, Corrections Department director. It costs the department $2.42 a day to feed inmates three meals a day, the fourth lowest figure in the country, Jones said.  Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina have lower daily rates for feeding inmates.  “I’d say we’re feeding our inmates a little better,” Jones said. Menus in the state’s prison must be approved by a registered dietitian.

The state prisons’ agriculture services unit has a budget of $10.6 million and includes dairy and beef cattle operations, a meat processing plant, gardens where vegetables are grown and a facility where those vegetables are processed and frozen for use later in the year or by other facilities.

jakking Economic Issues, Food Services, Oklahoma

Taxpayers now know terms of the new jail contract between the city of Tulsa OK and the county.

The city will pay $45 to house prisoners facing municipal only charges. That rate applies for the first 35 inmates. After that, it goes up to $54.13 per inmate. Both sides came to an agreement Monday night and released details of the contract Tuesday. They had been operating without a contract since December 2008.

This agreement means both sides avoid heading to trial. Reaching a new contract over jail fees became such a contentious issue that the city sued the county last December. The county wanted the city to pay $54.13 for inmates facing both municipal and state charges. “That’s not the way other cities have worked, and that’s not the way our contract had worked in the past,” said Mayor Kathy Taylor. “That would have increased our cost dramatically, ten or twelve fold.” It took more than a year for both sides to agree on who qualifies as a municipal prisoner. “In the end we ended up compromising on that issue,” said county commission chair John Smaligo. “The city got the definition they wanted. From our side, we ended up getting what we felt was a fair rate.”

To save money, the city will not jail suspects arrested for non-violent offenses. “We’re looking at a good business model that prioritizes public safety but doesn’t unnecessarily place people in David L. Moss and put a strain on the Sheriff’s system,” said Taylor.

This jail agreement lasts five years.

jakking County-City Issues, Economic Issues, OK Tulsa County, Oklahoma

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is seeking an exit clause in a proposed contract to house inmates at private prisons.  Report from KFSM.

The state is ending a five-year contract with the private Corrections Corporation of America and hopes to have a new deal in place by July 1.   Under the new proposal, the Corrections Department is requesting clauses allowing it to end the contract for any reason or to buy a private prison.  The proposed contract would also require private prisons housing Oklahoma inmates to offer access to psychologists, substance abuse services and basic behavioral counseling.

According to Corrections Department data, Oklahoma currently has about 4,300 state inmates in private prisons at a cost of $53 per inmate per day.

jakking CCA, Oklahoma, Private Prisons

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.

jakking 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.

jakking 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.”

jakking 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.

jakking 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.

jakking 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.

jakking 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.

jakking Jail and Prison Construction, Oklahoma, 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.

jakking Female Inmates, Oklahoma

In an opinion piece in NewsOK, the Rev. Stan Baslar argues that the Governor should be removed from the parole approval process.

One of the enigmas in the Oklahoma criminal justice system is public policy that promotes public safety by using long prison sentences coupled with systemic obstacles to parole supervision upon release.  Oklahoma remains the last state in which the governor’s signature is required on every parole. The audit conducted by MGT of America for the Legislature a couple of years ago cited this reality as one obstacle to reducing correctional expense.

Until recently, there has been a labor shortage in Oklahoma. Releasing prisoners to parole when the availability of employment is high is a win/win scenario. Ex-prisoners working as taxpayers and supervised in the process is ideal, since parole conditions include paying outstanding obligations and mental health and substance abuse treatment where needed … [but] many Oklahoma prisoners bypass the parole process and serve their entire sentence. That decision does not reflect a pro-social attitude. Making the parole process arduous, seemingly unrelated to good behavior and highly politicized isn’t likely to induce pro-social thinking in offenders.

The pattern is that the political party the governor doesn’t belong to scrutinizes each parole decision looking for ammunition to use at election time. Therefore, the governor is on secure footing politically in denying paroles if there is any risk of political fallout. The efforts of a thorough and conscientious pardon and parole board become subordinate to political considerations. Prisoners understand that receiving parole has a slight and contingent relationship to personal improvement efforts and good behavior. In the event the governor does sign the parole, it is 76 days on the average after the parole board has acted. Many times, the prisoner is so near release that parole is meaningless. Sometimes, home offers and job offers may have disappeared in the interim …

This session is not an election year. It is a year where budgetary shortages loom. It seems like a good time to let the people vote on whether or not parole is good public safety.

jakking Community Corrections, Oklahoma, Parole