The state Board of Corrections has approved one-time stipends of $1,750 for all of its employees who have been with the agency for at least six months. Those who have been with the agency for less than six months will get their stipend after they’ve been around half a year.

For most of the about 4,000 workers, the money should be distributed by late November.

The money comes from more than $10 million the corrections department got as a result of the state finishing its budget year with an unexpected surplus. After three budget failures repeatedly rolled back appropriations, the state had a few dollars left over. After considering other options, Gov. Mary Fallin decided to send the money back to the agencies in proportion to the amount they were cut during the budget failures.

That creates a one-time pool of money for state agencies to spend.

The corrections board decision is the right thing to do with the money and the right way to do it.

It sends the money where it is most desperately needed — to the agency’s underpaid, overworked employees.

Starting salary for an Oklahoma prison guard is $22,014 a year.

Thirty-six percent of corrections department workers haven’t had a pay raise in 10 years and 37 percent are eligible for food stamps based on a family of four.

Distributing the money as an across-the-board stipend weights the impact in favor of the department’s lowest paid workers, the guards and parole officers who put their lives on the line on a daily basis.

At the same time, making the payments a one-time stipend is financially prudent. The state almost certainly will have less money to spend next year than it does this year. The leftover fiscal 2016 money isn’t recurring revenue for the state and almost certainly won’t be figured into the department’s base budget. So making the money a part of the corrections workers’ salaries would be designing the system to fail.

Kudos to the Corrections Department for taking care of its people and the people of Oklahoma at the same time.