Stan Geiger

Oklahoma's Prison System: Sad Shape

Last night, KOTV reported a study has been released that says Oklahoma's prison system is pathetic. There is nowhere near enough space. The buildings are crumbling. The report noted one instance where a medical facility has been turned into prison space. The facility is anything but secure.

On the heels of that report comes a post from Mike McCarville. Mike says he got a complaint concerning a two-time convicted felon that was put on a parole docket just 8 months after being imprisoned. He did some research into Department of Corrections records. Below are examples of what he found.

Three-time felons with parole hearings just 18 months after being imprisoned for multiple-year terms.

Convicted drug dealers being assigned to minimum security facilities and being placed on parole dockets having served less than one-fifth of their sentences.

In one case, Inmate X has a record (12 felony convictions) that begins in 1983 with multiple burglary convictions for which he served time. In 1996, he was again convicted, this time on a burglary charge, and was given probation. In 1998, he was convicted of multiple drug possession and drug-dealing charges and served seven years of concurrent 15-year sentences. In late 2007, less than two years after being released from prison, he again was convicted on multiple drug charges and given four concurrent 7-year sentences in Oklahoma County District Court. He was turned over to the DOC in April 2008 and is scheduled for a parole hearing in December 2009, the DOC website shows.

So what's the problem?

Is it that cops aren't doing their job? Apparently not. They are arresting bad guys. In fact, from the sound of things, they are arresting the same bad guys time after time after time.

Is it "liberal" judges and juries? Apparently not. The felons are being convicted and sentenced.

Is it DOC? Do you think corrections officials want to run prisons with revolving doors? I don't. But what are they to do? Lacking enough space, for every one that comes in one has to go out.

Is it lack of money? Hardly. The state's general fund has increased in size by roughly 40 percent since the early years of this decade. In nominal dollars, about 2 billion.

The problem, quite simply, is education. State politicians have, for years, sold us out to educators. We have a crappy prison system for the same reason we have broken down roads and bridges: Anytime the state finds itself with more to spend, educators are the first in line to gobble it up.

We can't get ahead of the crime problem this way. People that choose to make livings as car thieves, burglars, armed robbers, meth cooks or whatever need to know that when they do the crime they will do the time---all of it. And we can't get to that point if we continue to pour excessive public resources into the pockets of educators.

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