Oklahoma Corrections Professionals

On Friday, January 15^th, OCP Executive Director, Amanda Ewing, attended the Board of Corrections meeting at LARC, where the budget was the topic in the forefront of everyone’s minds.  The DOC financial situation has become dire, as agency-wide furloughs are just weeks away.  Director Jones spoke candidly with the Board and the public, explaining that the FY’10 cuts will be the largest twelve-month reduction of funding in the history of the agency.  In comparison with other states, Oklahoma is the only state sustaining this level of cuts while still enduring a significant net growth in offenders.  Without legislative intervention early in session, DOC employees will suffer a cut in pay, on average, of 13% during the four months of furloughs. 

The outlook on FY’11, beginning this July, looks even worse, according to Director Jones.  Agencies have been told to expect 10% cuts for the next fiscal year on top of the FY’10 cuts.  If Corrections has to endure even a 7.5% cut for FY’11, the agency expects to have to lay off 459 employees.  With no additional funding, the only way to avoid such an extreme situation is for the State to enact sentencing reform.  We must start adopting policies that will move toward slowing the influx of offenders while expediting the release of those who will soon be eligible. 

Dr. Laura Pitman, Deputy Director of Female Offender Operations, updated the board and offered one possible solution to aid in the agency’s problems.  She explained that over 40% of female offenders serve less than one year in the Department’s custody.  With such short sentences those women rarely have time to receive programmatic treatment, yet Oklahoma’s female recidivism rate is extremely low compared to the rest of the country, at just 14.7%.  Director Jones explained that national research shows these women are unlikely to recidivate even without the prison time.  If the legislature would approve a bill allowing women convicted of certain crimes to be sentenced to wear a GPS monitor at home, the new type of sentencing could likely be just as effective, while allowing the State to save significant amounts of money by lowering the female offender population.

Throughout the meeting, Board members expressed intense frustration toward our lawmakers for failing to take action to avoid this situation.  David Henneke, Chair of the Board’s Legislative Committee, said he worries elected officials are turning a deaf ear to the DOC, since the agency and Board have offered solutions time and again, but have gotten no response.  Board member Robert Rainey said, “There has been a failure of leadership.  We need immediate, significant legislative reforms.”