Oklahoma Corrections Professionals

We’ve all been braced for the worst over the past four months of the legislative session, expecting budget cuts anywhere from seven to 12%, but in the end, the Legislature came through as they promised and held both agencies to much lower budget cuts for FY’11. The Pardon and Parole Board ended FY’10 with $2,334,162 and that’s exactly where they’ll stay- a 0% budget cut for FY’11!  DOC will take a 3% cut to its new base.  This means the agency ended FY’10 with an appropriation of $476,225,000 and will begin FY’11 in July with an appropriation of $462,141,777, a decrease of $14,083,223.

While these cuts are much better than they could have been, the fact is that both agencies will still be operating at budgets far below their fully functional levels.  So what will these FY’11 appropriations actually look like for each agency in the upcoming year? 

Pardon and Parole Board

The agency will be balancing the difficult decision of maintaining extraordinarily low staffing levels or implementing some level of furloughs.  In either instance, furloughs will decrease significantly from the past year.  If the agency decides to fill a vacant position to ease the current employees’ workload, all employees may furlough approximately one day per quarter. 

Department of Corrections

When the agency was anticipating a cut of 7.5%, they planned for the possibility of up to 600 terminations and as many furlough days as allowed: 23.  OCP has been told that the agency is still working to figure out what exactly this 3% cut will look like.  They stress the importance of keeping in mind that on top of the $14 million in cuts for FY’11, the agency has to find another $24 million to cover unfunded increases in the offender population, increases in employee benefit costs, and the holes that were filled with one-time funding in FY’10 that won’t be available for FY’11.  This means DOC needs a total of an additional $38 million to survive FY’11.  As a result, the agency is wasting no time, and they are already spreading the word around the Capitol that the DOC will need supplemental funding on top of this appropriation.  As the budget stands now, the 600 terminations will decrease considerably, and it is hoped that the 118 employees who took voluntary buyouts will make up the majority of the necessary staffing decreases.  As for furloughs, OCP is hearing that all 23 days are still on the table, but the agency hopes to find a way to decrease that number, if possible. 

Please keep in mind that as you read this, both agencies are working to decide how they will handle these newly announced budget figures, so things are still subject to change.  As always, OCP will do its very best keep you informed of all the information we can garner from sources around the State. 

While the budget situation is not ideal, it is MUCH better than we expected.  OCP thanks Director Jones, Director Jenks, and their tremendous staff for all the work they did this session to ensure their agencies were shielded from cuts as much as possible.   We also greatly appreciate the long hours of work by Speaker Benge, Pro Tempore Coffee, and Governor Henry in negotiating a budget that provided much more funding than initially expected. 

But most of all, OCP would like to thank you – our members! – for all the work you did this session in contacting your legislators, visiting the Capitol for THREE official OCP events, and all the while keeping up with your enormous workloads to ensure your agencies are protecting the public safety in Oklahoma.  Without a doubt, OCP made its presence known this year at the Capitol!  There is still much to be done in the coming years to get our agencies back to their necessary staffing and funding levels, but the more we stand together with a cohesive voice on corrections issues, the greater the likelihood that we will accomplish that goal.