By Barbara Hoberock
Tulsa World
McLOUD — The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is out of space, the agency’s governing board was told Friday.
The agency is expected to need a minimum of $10 million to $15 million in supplemental funds to finish fiscal year 2014, which began July 1, said Steve Burrage, a board member.
“We are going to have to have more money,” Burrage said.
His comments were made during the board’s regular monthly meeting at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud.
The agency withdrew a request for a supplemental appropriation of more than $6 million for fiscal year 2013 after Gov. Mary Fallin’s office and Burrage raised concerns about the agency’s revolving funds.
Laura Pitman, DOC deputy director for institutions, said the agency is out of space for funded beds. The agency has increased beds in public facilities and increased reliance on private prisons, she said.
The agency had to reopen cellblock C at Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, which added 221 beds, said DOC Director Justin Jones, who is resigning effective Oct. 1. The agency had closed the cellblock to retool the beds to serve as step-down housing for offenders coming out of long-term administrative segregation, Jones said.
The increased demand for beds is in response to additional prison growth and pressure from county jails, including the one in Tulsa, to pick up offenders who have been sentenced to DOC custody, Pitman said.
“We don’t determine demand,” Pitman said.
Michael Roach, a board member, said the agency has no place to put offenders if they must be moved as a result of a serious incident at a facility.
“If you were to lose a housing unit due to a disturbance, we have no available beds to move those inmates into,” Jones said. “Our flow of inmates is totally locked up at this time due to inmate growth, Tulsa County, and other counties invoking the 72-hour rule.”
The 72-hour rule requires the agency to receive offenders from county jails within 72 hours if the jail can document it is over capacity, Jones said.
This month, Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz filed a petition in Tulsa County District Court asking the court to order the DOC to accept all state inmates who are awaiting transfer to state prisons from the Tulsa Jail.
Board member Linda Neal said the agency’s numbers are climbing and it must figure out a way to deal with the increases.