State Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, has spent much of the summer sounding the alarm over Oklahoma’s prison understaffing problem.
On June 18 he asked Gov. Kevin Stitt to declare a state of emergency, arguing that low staffing numbers have elevated the risk of riots and violence in state prisons. He’s appeared on weekly Facebook Live broadcasts with Bobby Cleveland, director of the Oklahoma Corrections Professionals group, to provide updates on what he’s hearing from prison workers.
Humphrey’s work will continue this fall when he hosts an interim study on prison staffing and other areas of improvement to the Department of Corrections. He said his goal is to bring criminal justice reform advocates, corrections department workers and other stakeholders together to brainstorm possible solutions.
“It’s just unbelievable, these guys are working like crazy,” said Humphrey, a former Department of Corrections employee who chairs the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee. “I looked at one [timesheet] and out of 96 hours this guy had worked 60 hours.”
Justin Humphrey
On June 21 Oklahoma Watch published an in-depth report on the state’s struggle to hire and retain prison workers. Two former corrections officers quoted in the article said they found their job fulfilling but excessive hours took a toll on their physical and mental wellbeing. Two others said they could handle the overtime but became frustrated with management and decided to leave.
The state paid $19.4 million in overtime wages to corrections department employees in 2020, up 46% from 2017. Corrections officials say hiring and retaining workers can be challenging due to the difficult nature of the job and because most prisons are located in sparsely populated areas. The starting hourly wage for a correctional officer recruit is $15.74 an hour.
The agency has not released an official count of corrections officers. As of mid-June, the corrections department had 314 fully-funded, vacant positions.
The Legislature approved H.B. 2908, a line-item budget item last session that mandates the Department of Corrections spend $8 million annually to improve its correctional officer to prisoner ratio State Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, has spent much of the summer sounding the alarm over Oklahoma’s prison understaffing problem.
On June 18 he asked Gov. Kevin Stitt to declare a state of emergency, arguing that low staffing numbers have elevated the risk of riots and violence in state prisons. He’s appeared on weekly Facebook Live broadcasts with Bobby Cleveland, director of the Oklahoma Corrections Professionals group, to provide updates on what he’s hearing from prison workers.
Humphrey’s work will continue this fall when he hosts an interim study on prison staffing and other areas of improvement to the Department of Corrections. He said his goal is to bring criminal justice reform advocates, corrections department workers and other stakeholders together to brainstorm possible solutions.
“It’s just unbelievable, these guys are working like crazy,” said Humphrey, a former Department of Corrections employee who chairs the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee. “I looked at one [timesheet] and out of 96 hours this guy had worked 60 hours.”