ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>Oklahoma State Senate - News</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="author" content="oklahoma state senate staff"> <meta name="description" content="Oklahoma State Senate - Press Release"> <meta name="keywords" content="oklahoma, state, senate, press, release"> </head> <body leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"> <table width="87%" height="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="this table contains the main navigation menu"> <tr> <td colspan="+2"><!-- #BeginLibraryItem "/Library/barnews.lbi" --> &nbsp;<map name="m_barnews"><area shape="rect" coords="0,0,26,19" href="../../../index.htm" alt="Link to main page" ><area shape="rect" coords="26,0,119,20" href="../../../senators.htm" alt="Link to Senators" ><area shape="rect" coords="124,0,217,20" href="../../../legislation.htm" alt="Link to Legislation" ><area shape="rect" coords="216,0,309,20" href="../../../schedule.htm" alt="Link to Schedule" ><area shape="rect" coords="310,0,403,20" href="../../../committees.htm" alt="Link to Committees" ><area shape="rect" coords="403,0,496,20" href="../../../publications.htm" alt="Link to Publications" ><area shape="rect" coords="498,2,591,20" href="../../../news.htm" alt="Link to News" ><area shape="rect" coords="593,0,689,20" href="../../../staff.htm" alt="Link to Staff" ></map><!-- #EndLibraryItem --></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="100%"> <table width="100%" height="227%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="this table contains the news navigation menu"> <tr> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="100%"></td> </tr> </table> <br> </td> <td width="100%"><table width="82%" border="0" align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="this table contains the main content of the page"> <tr> <TD width="75%"> <p align="center"><FONT SIZE="+3" FACE="Arial" align="center"><strong>Oklahoma State Senate <br> </strong></font><FONT align="center">Senator Kenneth Corn<br> Senate District 4</font></p> <div align="center"> <table width="14%" border="0" align="center"> <tr> <td width="48%" bordercolor="0"><div align="center"><font face="Arial"><a href="pr20100420kpv.html"><img src="../../printnews.gif" alt="Printer-friendly version" width="25" height="25" border="0"></a></font></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="0"><div align="center"><a href="pr20100521bpv.html">Print</a></div></td> </tr> </table> </div> <p align="center">For Immediate Release: May 21, 2010<br> <br> <img src="../senator_photos/corn_bio.jpg" alt="Sen. Kenneth Corn" width="150" height="200">&nbsp; <img src="../senator_photos/lerblance_bio.jpg" alt="Sen. Richard Lerblance" width="156" height="200"> <br> Sen. Kenneth Corn&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Sen. <strong style="font-weight: 400">Richard Lerblance</strong></p> <p align="center"><b>Lawmakers Call for Additional Funds for Corrections Before Legislature Adjourns Sine Die</b></p> <p><strong style="font-weight: 400">State Senators </strong> <a href="../../../Senators/Senators/biographies/corn_bio.html">Kenneth Corn</a><strong style="font-weight: 400"> D-Poteau, and <a href="../../../Senators/Senators/biographies/lerblance_bio.html"> Richard Lerblance</a>, D-Hartshorne, said reducing the Department of Corrections (DOC) budget by three percent will put members of the public and corrections employees at risk. The two lawmakers urged legislative leaders to work in the final days of the session to identify $46 million in additional funding.</strong></p> <p><strong style="font-weight: 400"> With a three percent cut, DOC will be forced to reduce staffing to 71 percent, Corn said.  All corrections employees will be forced to take 23 furlough days next year. With some prisons already understaffed, this makes a bad situation even more dangerous. $46 million is what they need just to maintain an essentially a stand-still budget. It would be wrong for us to go home before we address this critical issue. </strong></p> <p><strong style="font-weight: 400">Lerblance said he was also concerned because the 2011 DOC budget numbers were based on zero growth in the state s inmate population.</strong></p> <p><strong style="font-weight: 400"> But this last year alone, we added 700 new inmates to the system. I realize a lot of work went into finding ways to bridge the gap in the budget to make it balance but I think our work is far from done. We simply must find a way to add additional funds to at least get DOC to a stand-still budget level, Lerblance said.  If we don t, the reality is at the very least we re looking at the possibility of costly federal intervention, and even worse, we re jeopardizing the lives of those charged with ensuring the state s most dangerous criminals stay behind bars and away from law-abiding citizens. </strong></p> <p><strong>For more information, contact: </strong><br> Sen. Corn: (405) 521-5576<br> Sen. Lerblance (405) 521-5604</p> <p align="left" style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><img src="../bandblue.gif" alt="Inon: Horizontal Blue Band" width="640" height="6"></p> <table border=0 align="center" summary="this table contains return links"> <tr> <td width="249"> <center> <font size="-1" face="MS Sans Serif"><a href="pr201005.html">May Press Releases </a>| </font><font face="MS Sans Serif"><a href="../../press_releases.html"><font size="-1">Press Releases</font></a></font><font size="-1"> </font> </center></td> </tr> </table></tr> <tr valign="top"> <td height="100%">&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>