Oklahoma prisons expected to be full in early 2007

[carzen]

Oklahoma prisons, public or private, will reach capacity by early next year, Department of Corrections officials predict.

State-run prisons already are essentially full, and any remaining space in privately run prisons is being bought out by other states to incarcerate their inmates, DOC director Justin Jones said.

"We are finally getting to the brick wall in Oklahoma," Jones said.

Ninety-eight percent of beds in public prisons are occupied, but that figure includes a small percentage of space that's being held open for inmates who can't have a cell mate or in anticipation of the arrival of a new inmate.


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