You must have missed the story in the World this morning that our prison system has $750 million in needed capital projects and we will be facing closing some of them. More cheer!
Oklahoma must close some state prisons, new DOC interim director says
Related story: State Rep. Pam Peterson hopes to address incarceration rates by increasing felony threshold
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma needs to close some of its prisons, Department of Corrections Interim Director Joe Allbaugh said Wednesday.
On the job for about a month so far, Allbaugh said state prisons have capital needs in excess of $750 million.
“We are going to have to close some facilities, and that is going to cause a lot of pain, particularly with people who don’t believe their facility should be at risk,” Allbaugh said during an interview with the Tulsa World. “I understand that, but either we gain some efficiencies in the system or give me more money to build a prison.”
Some facilities aren’t safe for staff, offenders or administrators, and “it is just a matter of time before we have a serious incident,” Allbaugh said.
Asked which facilities he is considering closing, Allbaugh said: “Well, I don’t know. I am not there yet.”
Allbaugh, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, replaced Robert Patton, who announced in December his resignation from his position as corrections director to take a job in Arizona.
During his first weeks on the job, Allbaugh has been visiting prisons.
And he has seen a lot: low morale among underpaid correctional officers; programs that work but don’t have enough support; doors and locks on cells that don’t work but still house offenders; individuals at community centers and halfway houses that are not supervised properly; a draconian paper filing system to keep track of offender histories; holes in fences; and a system at 122 percent of capacity.
He described the bare bones staffing at the correctional officer level as “unnerving.”
“The overriding story is that there is a problem in the Department of Corrections,” Allbaugh said. “And the governor, Legislature and society as a whole have ownership of this problem.”
He points to mandatory sentences that send offenders to prison for long stays.
He supports sentencing reform but said it is not the agency’s “bailiwick.”
“That is not what we do,” he said.
While he said he is not a fan of using private prisons, given the state’s situation, they are a relief valve for the state, he said.
“Right now, (the private prisons) are saving our bacon,” he said.
Private prisons in Sayre and Watonga could be used to help relieve pressure on state prisons, he said.
Allbaugh is originally from Oklahoma. He has been living in Austin, Texas, but has a ranch in the Blackwell area. He has known Gov. Mary Fallin for more than 35 years, and he wanted to return to Oklahoma.
He watched from afar as Oklahoma came under national scrutiny for how it handled executions.
Since then, the agency has made significant changes to ensure that human errors do not put the state under the microscope again, he said.
“I am confident what has happened before will not happen again,” he said.
Allbaugh said he believes in the death penalty and that the day will come when executions resume in Oklahoma.
“We will be ready, and I have confidence in the men and women on the team and the individuals that it will be done right,” he said.
Allbaugh wears boots, slacks, a white shirt embroidered with his initials, a large belt buckle, rings and bracelets.
“That is (for) my youngest nephew,” Allbaugh said when asked about one of the bracelets. “He was killed in Al Anbar Province. I wear it for him.”
Marine Capt. Jeremy Allbaugh, 21, of Harrah was killed in Iraq in July 2007.
Allbaugh, 63, said in response to a question that he is not really a religious person. He used to like to hunt and fish when he had time, he said.
He likes Braum’s ice cream and milk.
“I think I have told people around the world it is the best stuff going on,” Allbaugh said.
He describes himself as a workaholic.
“I thrive on making things happen,” Allbaugh said. “Talk is cheap in my world. Action is everything.”
He said he has the ability to make decisions, enforce them and hold people accountable, including himself.
“Don’t make me the story,” he said. “I want the system to be the story. It is about a broken system that horribly needs attention and needs to be fixed. Everybody in the state has ownership of how it got this bad and how we need to fix it.
“We are all in this together. I don’t have a magic wand, but I do know how to correct things and make things happen.”
At the end of the day, he wants to have made a difference, he said.
Kevin Gross, chairman of the Board of Corrections, said when Allbaugh was appointed interim director in January that the board was hopeful that a permanent hire could be made within eight months.
Regardless of whether Allbaugh is on the job for a few months or years, he hopes that when looking back, people will say, “I am glad he stopped by.”
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/capitol_report/oklahoma-must-close-some-state-prisons-new-doc-interim-director/article_00bf05f5-902c-5dd8-8cb8-6d3d7779ea18.html