OPEA

A convicted murderer and another inmate spent five years rattling the prison fence to see if anyone would check. No one did, so, on Jan. 22, 2007, they cut through the fence at the privately-run Great Plains Correctional Facility and kidnapped a 71-year-old woman and later a 74-year-old woman. The escapees’ 36-hour crime spree came to an end in Tulsa, but not before they had committed a rash of home invasions.

This is just one story of hundreds the Oklahoma Public Employees Association (OPEA) is telling as it ramps up efforts to fight the spread of private prisons in Oklahoma.

For help, OPEA turned to a nationally-recognized anti-privatization expert. Retired Correctional Officer Brian Dawe recently toured and met with employees at the James Crabtree Correctional Center, L.E. Rader Juvenile Center and Oklahoma State Penitentiary, and he also spoke with legislative leaders in an effort to educate and activate state employees whose jobs are being threatened by private prisons. 

Dawe’s message to employees? Get active in your association and with your legislators. 

“The bottom line for private prisons is profit, and, to make money, they must have inmates. Your inmates, your facilities and your jobs are simply what they are after,” Dawe said. “In Arizona, the state has already put every public facility out for bid with the private sector, and the idea will be coming to Oklahoma.”

Dawe pointed to the financial aspect of the private prison industry. 

“Follow the money,” he said. “Private prisons make a profit of over 30 percent on each inmate. They utilize a good portion to influence local policy decisions by hiring the most affluent lobbying firms and making political donations.”

Dawe told OPEA members that public corrections professionals, unlike those who work for private prisons, are judged by the safety of their prisons and the impact on their communities. 

“Private prison CEOs are judged by profit,” Dawe explained. “Private prison operators don’t want fewer inmates; they want more. They don’t want early release, drug courts or alternative sentencing. They want warm bodies in their cells.”

Increased violence means increased profits for private prisons. 

“Inmate-on-inmate assaults are 66 percent higher in private prisons, and assaults on staff are 49 percent higher,” Dawe told legislators. “Violence brings with it new charges against inmates, additional sentences and loss of good time, which all result in more time behind the walls and, of course, more profit for the corporations.”

These private-corporation profits have spawned some stark statistics, OPEA Deputy Director Scott Barger pointed out. 

“According to Department of Corrections stats, private prisons were fined $355,000 in FY 2008 and $544,000 in FY 2009. Not one time, according to our sources, did they appeal the fines. They paid them and continued making money and jeopardizing public safety,” Barger said.

For instance, recent attacks at the Cimarron Correctional Center kicked off a day of violence that spread to public prisons Dick Conners Correctional Center and the Oklahoma State Reformatory. Days later, American Indian inmates wielding homemade tomahawks and knives attacked two Hispanic inmates at the Lawton Correctional Facility, sending them by ambulance to a local hospital. 

When questioned by the press about the attacks, GEO Group, the private company that runs the prison, referred questions to the Lawton Police Department.

“Clearly, the GEO group has no authority and takes no responsibility for the attacks,” said Barger. “GEO uses the local law enforcement agency to divert attention and keep from answering questions about the attacks. I am sure the Lawton Police Department has better things to do than spend time and money answering questions about a private prison’s operations.”

Private prison companies won’t admit that they cut staff to dangerous levels or overcrowd facilities. They also will deny that they make their profits solely by undercutting wages and slicing staff. 

“Two things are certain,” said Barger. “They are not opening their books to public scrutiny like government agencies are required to do, and they are not passing any savings on to the state. So when the state deals with a private prison, kiss transparency goodbye and get out your checkbook.”