The Tulsa World explores the unusual lack of funding that has stalled Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative, which in 2012 was hailed as her plan “to curb prison growth.” By the following February, news reports shifted to how the governor’s budget didn’t include funding for most of the reforms, which had been described as “much-needed” when she signed the initiative.
And a month later, the co-chairmen of the committee tasked with implementing those reforms resigned in frustration over what they alleged were attempts by the Governor’s Office to thwart progress. Now, Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections appears once again to be where it has remained for years: packed prisons with about 60 percent of the correctional officers needed to supervise them.