Corrections Director calls report flawed
The Associated Press and The Tulsa World - August 7, 2018 12:16 pm
Joe M. Allbaugh
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The director of the Oklahoma Corrections Department says a recent report about cost savings from criminal justice reforms was flawed.
The Tulsa World reports that department Director Joe M. Allbaugh wrote a letter Friday to Gov. Mary Fallin that alleges the report isn’t supported by facts and overstates the averted costs.
The reforms reclassified some drug and property crimes as misdemeanors instead of felonies. The Office of Management and Enterprise Services’ report released last month says those changes saved more than $63 million in fiscal 2018.
Allbaugh says the report incorrectly calculated inmate numbers and made an inaccurate assumption about inmates serving sentences.
OMES spokeswoman Shelley Zumwalt says the office used historical data from the jail system. She says the office agrees with many of Allbaugh’s points and that additional data would improve calculations.
