Oklahoma House of Representatives
Mike W. Ray, Media Division Director
January 26, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: State Rep. Wayne Pettigrew
Capitol: (405) 557-7342
Edmond: (405) 340-9290

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Legislation filed by a Republican state legislator recommends a 5 percent increase in Corrections Department employee wages and in private prison contract rates.

The proposal is contained in House Bill 1862 by Rep. Wayne Pettigrew, R-Edmond, a member of the House Committee on Appropriations and Budget.

The increase would cost the State of Oklahoma an estimated additional $12.6 million, House staff calculated. The Legislature shaved the Corrections Department's appropriation last year by 8.3 percent, to $373.9 million, Pettigrew recalled.

The most recent monthly payroll for the department was approximately $12.6 million for 4,699 employees. Raising those wages 5 percent, and adding benefits of approximately 20 percent, would cost an estimated $9.07 million annually. The expense would be even higher except the department has not filled approximately 1,150 vacant
positions, including almost 600 in its correctional officer ranks.

HB 1862 also proposes a 5 percent increase in the rate the state pays to private prison contractors. The Department of Corrections contracts with four private prisons, which provide 4,530 inmate beds at an average daily cost of $43.06 each. Last year the state earmarked approximately $86 million for private prisons, ledgers reflect; boosting
the contract price by 5 percent would require an additional $3.55 million.

"Ever since the state began contracting with private prisons in 1995, we have never increased what we pay them," Pettigrew said. He also said that the last time the Legislature raised wages for state correctional officers -- in 2001, by $4,000 annually -- private prisons "had a hard time competing with the public sector" and consequently
"lost a lot of their employees" to the Corrections Department.

Salaries for Oklahoma's correctional officers range from $20,600 annually for a new hire; $21,800 a year for a Correctional Security Officer II; $31,200 for a Correctional Officer III; up to $33,200 annually for a Correctional Officer IV.

The Oklahoma prison inmate count earlier this month was 22,702, and another 1,400 convicts were in county jails while awaiting transfer to state penal facilities, records indicate. In addition, the Corrections Department's 260 probation and parole officers were busy keeping tabs on almost 28,400 convicts who were free from custody on probation, plus more than 4,400 parolees, department spokesman Jerry Massie related.

The rate increases in House Bill 1862 would go into effect July 1.

"Our correctional officers are underpaid and overworked," Pettigrew said. "Staffing has dipped to critical levels. Incidents of escape and assault are mounting, and these employees are our front-line guardians.

Surely in a $5 billion state budget we can find $12.6 million for a public safety issue as critical as prisons."

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