OKPOLICY.ORG
“It is shameful what is going on. For some reason, I guess, everybody thinks we are supposed to have a magic wand in the closet somewhere and grow that tree that grows money. I haven’t figured it out yet.”
-Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh, speaking about the overcrowding and deteriorating facilities in Oklahoma prisons. The Board of Corrections has begun the process of selling up to $116.5 million in bonds to expand prison capacity. [Tulsa World]
Apparently forgotten in all this is that OK had a DOC director who was managing to keep it all afloat through in-depth knowledge of the system and unfortunate but necessary use of revolving funds. He was railroaded out by a governor toting private prison water who was aided by news media acting as stenographers and a budget chief who eventually showed his own lack of competence in another position. Mr. Allbaugh should have checked all this before he accepted an appointment from said governor. And he should be on the phone daily to the director who had the problem as contained as it could have possibly been.