By Graham Lee Brewer
The Oklahoman
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — In an effort to reduce the backlog of inmates waiting in county jail for an empty prison bed, officials of the state Corrections Department say they have more than tripled the number of prisoners the agency processes every day.
All male inmates are first processed through the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center, where they are assigned a security level and a facility to serve out their sentence. Director Robert Patton said that in the last two weeks, not only has staff at the prison decreased the number of days it takes to process each inmate from nine to four, they also have increased the number of prisoners they receive each day from 30 to 100.
“We’ve pulled over 400 inmates out of that backlog, and plan to pull them all,” Patton said, adding that once they all have been removed, the agency will formulate a plan to keep state inmates out of county jails. He said that so far, they have mainly pulled additional inmates from 10 counties.
Lawsuit related
to overcrowding
County jails throughout the state have been housing more inmates as the state’s prison population pushes facilities to their housing limits. Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz filed a lawsuit against the state Corrections Department in October for issues related to overcrowding at his jail.
State prisons also are feeling the strain of a consistently high rate of incarceration. Many facilities lack both preferable staffing levels and open beds. Statewide, prisons are staffed at around 60 percent, and as of a March population update, state prisons were 96 percent full at the end of January.
Staff stays the same
Patton acknowledged some of the prisons have created new beds in day rooms and beds in some dorms have been turned into double bunks. He said he visited with staff at Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center and Jess Dunn Correctional Center, and they are handling it well and additional staff hasn’t been hired as a result of the increased processing.
“I walked the areas where they added extra bunks, I talked to staff and staff morale is very high,” Patton said. “They’re excited about the direction we’re going, they’re excited about my message.”
Part of what he has asked staff to do to meet demand is fill in for shifts outside their everyday work requirements, such as asking case managers and wardens to also work security posts when necessary.
Patton said they also are filling vacant beds in halfway houses and community corrections centers.