Published: January 26, 2008 11:54 pm         

Legislature seeks ways of fixing state’s deteriorating prisons

Inmates stretch their tattooed arms between the thick iron bars of their cell doors at Oklahoma State Penitentiary’s F Cell House, tilting small plastic mirrors they hold in their hands to get a glimpse of their neighbors and the correctional officers who patrol the maximum security cell block.

Chatter among the inmates gets louder when they spot warden’s as-sistant Terry Cren-shaw as he makes his way along a narrow walkway that divides two rows of inmate cells and gives prison staff their only clear view inside them.

“Crenshaw, we got no hot water up here,” one inmate shouts.

“When are we going to stop this madness?” another asks rhetorically.

It’s a walk Crenshaw and other correctional workers take daily at Oklahoma’s 100-year-old maximum-security prison. And it’s one that puts them in constant danger.

Unlike contemporary prisons where inmates are locked behind solid metal doors, inmates in the outdated F Cell House at McAlester, built in the 1930s, can reach through the bars of their cells, throw things at prison staffers and even attack them.

Problems like these are not unique to just OSP, though, said Rep. Mike Jackson, R-Enid. Jackson said there is a need for more money for more beds and better corrections facilities statewide.

“I think throughout the legislative session last year we did a lot of research addressing the Department of Corrections,” Jackson said.



‘Is it a crisis? Yes.’



Inadequate funding has prevented the Department of Corrections from updating facilities.

That is apparent is places like F Cell House, parts of which are deteriorating due to neglect.

“You’re looking at facilities that can’t necessarily be repaired. They have to be torn down and replaced,” Crenshaw said

But the prison — site of Oklahoma’s death row — is the only barrier between the public and the inmates housed inside.

“We pretty much secure Oklahoma’s orneriest inmates,” Crenshaw said. “This is a very dangerous institution. It’s very stressful.

“Is it a crisis? Yes.”

How to solve Oklahoma’s prison crisis is one of the toughest issues facing state lawmakers as they prepare to convene the 2008 Legislature Feb. 4. But how much can be accomplished before lawmakers adjourn in May and whether they have the political will to spend millions of tax dollars to improve state prisons remain unanswered.

“It’s taken years and years to get us in this situation. It’ll take time to get us out,” said Sen. Owen Laughlin, R-Woodward, Republican floor leader.

“We’re going to have to put some dollars into corrections. We have some facilities that are woefully inadequate and, in fact, dangerous.”



Public safety a priority



Laughlin and other lawmakers said public safety is the key issue in the upcoming prison debate. Underfunding and understaffing puts the public as well as correctional officers and inmates at risk.

“We have to equip them with the tools, the manpower they have to have to perform their mission,” said Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, chairman of House Judiciary and Public Safety Committee.

“The number one job of government has got to be keeping the thugs off the street,” Laughlin said.

Lawmakers said they will be guided by the findings of a comprehensive performance audit of state prisons made public earlier this month.

“Our leaders in the Department of Corrections have worked and are working with all parties involved to come up with a bipartisan solution,” Jackson said.

The audit said Oklahoma prisons are antiquated and underfunded. It recommended the Legislature immediately appropriate more than $25 million to secure 660 maximum-security cells at a private prison in Davis and hire additional correctional and pardon and parole officers.

In addition, the audit recommends a $30 million increase in the agency’s budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The state prison budget this year is about $477 million, about 7 percent of the total state budget.



Age-old problems



Many of the problems auditors found in state prisons are abundant at Oklahoma State Penitentiary, built in part by inmate labor and opened in 1908.

In F Cell House, which houses 390 inmates, exposed metal sprinkler pipes crisscross the ceiling of a walkway that divides inmate cells — pipes that would become formidable weapons in an inmate’s hands.

The prison’s towering rotunda, which serves as a gateway to the cell house and other parts of the prison, is not air-conditioned, and prison staffers who work there must endure the heat of Oklahoma summers and the chill of its winters.

“There’s no heating. There’s no cooling,” Crenshaw said. And when it rains, guards put out “Wet Floor” signs in the rotunda because the roof leaks.

“I don’t think we’ve got a building that doesn’t leak,” he said.

Stress cracks stretch along the rotunda’s floor, which still bears remnants of asbestos tile removed years earlier.

Cells in the prison’s original East and West cell houses have not been used since a federal judge ordered them closed. But parts of the cell houses still are used for temporary inmate housing and as a pathway to a recreation yard. Above the pathway, layers of paint — some of it lead-based — peel from the cell house’s masonry ceiling.

Throughout the facility, reinforced glass panels and windows are cracked and shattered.

“Is this a security risk? Yes, it is,” Crenshaw said. “We don’t have funds to replace stuff like this.”



Looking for creative solutions



Oklahoma is 41st in the nation in the amount it spends to incarcerate inmates, the audit found. Auditors found no waste within the prison system and concluded it was cost-effective.

Duncan said he hopes to implement some of the audit’s 141 recommendations this year. Among them are taking the governor out of the parole process, a move the audit said would increase inmate releases and reduce Oklahoma’s prison population, which stood at 25,100 Jan. 22.

Jackson believes electronic monitoring devices for paroles might help reduce the overcrowding issue. He also said government leaders may want to look into more treatment options for drug abuse offenders and less prison terms.

“In the recidivism rate (of drug abuse offenders) there is shining example of things that work,” Jackson said speaking of treatment. “It is amazing what they have been able to accomplish.”

Jackson said one major concern he has about abuse offenders is what they might learn while in prison.

“We do not want to put minor offenders in with the main population,” he said. “This could further their criminal career.”



Parole factor



Auditors said Oklahoma parole rates are significantly lower than other states. Oklahoma is the only state in the nation in which the governor must sign off on every inmate parole request.

The audit predicted Oklahoma’s inmate population will rise to almost 29,000 by 2016 and said policies requiring certain felons to serve 85 percent of their sentences are driving the increase.

But lawmakers said there is no consensus in the Legislature for rolling back the 85 percent rule.

Since 1999, lawmakers have adopted sentencing policies that emphasize the so-called “deadly sins,” a list of 19 violent offenses that require those convicted of them to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence. The offenses include murder, rape and some forms of robbery, burglary, arson and child molestation.

“The public has a right to expect people sentenced to an 85 percent crime to actually serve that,” Duncan said.

Jackson said the house is in pre-session, and this week members will discuss DOCfunding.

“The DOC audit focuses on stellar progress and recognizes the things that worked,” Jackson said, “but, it is not an overall fix.”



Staff writer Tony Waggoner contributed to this Associated Press report.