Vacant private prison eyed to ease Oklahoma’s overcrowding

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The head of the state’s overcrowded prison system is proposing to lease vacant private prison in western Oklahoma as part of a larger plan to consolidate some of the agency’s smaller regional work centers and other facilities.

Department of Corrections Interim Director Joe Allbaugh said he will present his proposal on the 2,600-bed North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre to the Board of Corrections during its regular meeting Thursday.

Allbaugh says the plan is for a long-term lease that would allow state DOC employees to operate the prison, which would house medium and maximum-security prisoners.

The prison is owned by Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America. The prison had been housing more than 2,300 inmates from California, but closed down in November and has been empty since.