OKLAHOMA CITY — Gov. Mary Fallin has asked the new Department of Corrections director to evaluate a public safety law that many believe has not been funded adequately, she said Monday.
On Friday, the Board of Corrections tapped Robert C. Patton to replace Justin Jones, who resigned last year from an agency that is plagued with crowded prisons, poor staffing and low morale. Patton is coming from the Arizona Department of Corrections, where he was the division director of operations.
In 2012, Fallin signed House Bill 3052 by then-House Speaker Kris Steele, R-Shawnee, who is no longer in office.
Dubbed the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, the highly touted public safety measure was designed to curb prison crowding and improve public safety.
It called for the creation of “intermediate revocation facilities” for those who make technical violations of probation and parole and deter them from regular incarceration.
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It also called for additional officers to supervise for nine months those leaving custody.
Those two key elements have yet to be funded.
Fallin said she is committed to JRI, but she did not say whether the two elements would be funded in the future, adding that she is still working on her executive budget and needs more information.
She said she has asked Patton to evaluate the legislation, adding that in the past she and lawmakers have not had confidence in the agency’s handling of its funds.
Critics say Fallin backed off the measure for fear of being painted as soft on crime during an election year.
“I want to make it very clear,” Fallin said Friday during a press conference discussing Patton’s appointment. “I do support JRI. I signed the law. It is being implemented as planned by three different agencies.”
The measure also called for risk assessments to aid in sentencing.
Fallin said more than 1,100 of those evaluations have been performed to determine what services defendants need.
In addition, the Legislature funded a grant program through the Attorney General’s Office to help law enforcement reduce violent crime.
Fallin said she has also asked Patton to evaluate how the state uses, oversees and holds accountable private prisons and halfway houses.
“My philosophy regarding private prisons is very simple,” Fallin said Friday. “Our corrections system is and always will be a public corrections system with state-run facilities and state employees.
“I do not support privatizing the Department of Corrections. I want to make that very clear. However, I do believe that private corrections facilities can aid in the Department of Corrections’ mission to house, rehabilitate and provide step-down services and to help supervise offenders.”
Fallin’s campaign committee is the top Oklahoma recipient of corporate corrections funding, having received $38,250 through Sept. 30, according to a recent analysis by the Tulsa World. Since 2004, private corrections interests and those who represent them have spent more than $400,000 to fund various elected officials’ campaigns and political causes.
Fallin said donations from the industry had “zero” influence on her, noting that they amounted to less than 1 percent of her donations through the years.
She said she has also asked Patton to evaluate employee compensation. A recent study by the Oklahoma Corrections Professionals found that pay for Oklahoma correctional officers is significantly lower than that of their counterparts in other states.
Fallin will have about $170 million less in fiscal year 2015 than in the current fiscal year to build her executive budget.
“Our corrections officers, like all state employees, deserve better,” Fallin said, adding that the current pay structure is insufficient to recruit and retain employees.
A recently released study of all state employee pay found salaries lacking while benefits were better than others.
