Officials list woes besetting Oklahoma state prison system

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Oklahoma’s prison system director has told the state’s prisons board that Oklahoma’s prisons are in trouble.
Department of Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh says the system suffers from aging, low staffing, skyrocketing medical costs for aging inmates and no budget increases in the face of growing inmate populations and decreasing paroles.
He told the Board of Corrections on Tuesday the day approaches when the system will “be incapable of taking more prisoners.”
The prisons are operating at 109 percent of capacity. If inmates in contract facilities were moved to state prisons, the system would be at 146 percent of capacity.
State Rep. Bobby Cleveland, who chairs the House Public Safety Committee, attended the meeting. The Slaughterville Republican said the state is lucky it hasn’t had a major prison riot.