Board of Corrections approves prison system budget request

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC) is asking lawmakers for $1.57 billion in funding for next year, with more than half of that amount slated to provide extra beds.

The budget includes $884 million to add 5,200 beds, $91.7 million for inmate hepatitis C treatment, $31.9 million for facility repairs, maintenance and critical needs, and $18.5 million for staff pay raises.

“This request is not a wish list,” ODOC Director Joe M. Allbaugh said. “This is what we need. Oklahoma continues to send more people to prison, and it costs real money to house, look after, and provide those individuals medical care – all of which we are required to do.”

The continuing growth of the state's prison population is driving the most expensive item on the agency’s list. According to Prison Policy Initiative, a Massachusetts justice reform think-tank, Oklahoma currently owns the highest incarceration rate in the world. It also imposes longer sentences for drug and property crimes than the national average, per the advocacy group Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, and exits a lower percentage of inmates back into society via parole, according to figures released by the Robina Institute at the University of Minnesota.

“We are bursting at the seams with over 27,000 inmates inside a 24-facility system – and the state has made little progress on justice reform,” Allbaugh said. “As we’ve said before, reforms passed last session will help slow inmate population growth but do little to unseat Oklahoma as the world’s top incarcerator.”

State facilities are currently 13% above capacity; 1,993 inmates are housed in temporary beds with another 975 sitting in county jails, waiting to transfer to prison.

“Oklahoma needs to invest in its prison system now,” BOC chairman Frazier Henke said. “The sooner we invest in our infrastructure, the sooner we begin saving taxpayer dollars in the future.”

The budget also includes money for inmate hepatitis C treatment. ODOC estimates more than 3,000 inmates have hepatitis C, caused by a virus commonly contracted via intravenous drug use or unsafe sex. The disease is common in inmate populations worldwide and its potential complications, such as liver failure or cirrhosis, can be fatal.

For several years, the agency has requested funding from lawmakers to pay for hepatitis C drugs for its inmates, which cost an average of $29,203 for a full course of treatment per inmate, but that funding has never been provided.

ODOC is also requesting money for staff raises including $3.9 million to increase security officer pay. That includes a raise for cadet correctional officers from $13.74 per hour, the region’s lowest, to $14.74 – which would be higher than two neighboring states but still below average. Officers, corporals, and sergeants would also see increases.

Rounding out the request is a planned pay increase for several non-security staff positions. This is to bring pay in line with industry standards and attract more health professionals to work for ODOC, as the agency continues to struggle with a worker shortage.

(Image courtesy Ben Fenwick/Oklahoma Watch)