DOC: Restoring $10M In Cuts Not Enough

Thursday, September 8th 2016, 1:03 pm

By: Aaron Brilbeck

In the next couple of weeks, the state is expected to return $141-million to state agencies that saw cuts. The Department of Corrections (DOC) will get about $10 million back. But they say that’s not enough.

Prison officials say facilities around the state are woefully understaffed. Brett Blake knows firsthand the dangers of understaffing. Back in 1994 he was working as a guard at the Oklahoma City Jail when he was attacked by four inmates.

"I was beaten. The face, the head, chest and back," Blake recalled.

Police say the inmates stomped on Blake's head and bashed it into a concrete wall. They kicked and punched him long after he stopped moving. Doctors expected him to die. Blake spent the next month in a coma, and now suffers with daily seizures and other issues tied to a traumatic brain injury.

“Every day is a challenge. PTSD, of course. Anxiety. Severe anxiety. I visit doctors couple of times a week," Blake said. "There's a lot of differences between me now and me before. Because once you hurt your brain, that changes everything about you."

Twenty-two years after the attack, Blake says lawmakers still aren’t funding the correctional system the way it should be.

"Right now we're about 30-percent understaffed for correctional officers and guys in these positions they go into prisons every day and put their lives on the line," said Alex Gerszewski with the DIC.

Corrections officials tell News 9 37-percent of their guards are paid so little they’re eligible for food stamps. Starting pay is just $22k.

Blake says without proper staffing, it’s not “If” another guard is attacked. It’s “When”.

"The same thing is gonna happen with DOC,” Blake said. “I don't know if they’re not thinking about that. I don't know about what their issue is. It's gonna happen."