Posted on: Thursday, December 2, 2004

EDITORIAL
State owed a refund by Oklahoma prison

We paid for it. We didn't get what we paid for. We want our money back.

Any consumer who pays for a product or service that isn't delivered as promised would demand a refund. State government, in spending taxpayer money for public services, must do no less.

When female inmates from Hawai'i were sent to an Oklahoma prison because Hawai'i's facilities were overcrowded, the state ordered up a range of services for them, including a drug treatment program while they were in custody.

As early as June 2003, contract monitors in the Department of Public Safety were recommending that the 64 women be moved elsewhere because some of those services weren't being delivered.

By the end of March of this year, Oklahoma officials knew they were still not providing the required programs but said they couldn't help it.

Now a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety says there's been no attempt to seek refund of the money paid for the services not rendered "because there was no gross neglect."

That's ridiculous. Oklahoma must refund the portion of the money it received for services it didn't deliver. There will be gross neglect if Public Safety fails to demand it.

There's more at stake here than the department's stewardship of public money, shaky though that appears.

The department is obligated to treat inmates in its care consistent with the current standards. That includes what it contracted for in Oklahoma — proper food, hygiene, safety — and such programs as substance abuse counseling and classes in parenting and anger management. Qualified inmates also were to receive vocational and other work programs.

When it was made clear that those services were not forthcoming, the inmates should have been removed immediately. As it is, taxpayers are entitled to a refund for services not rendered. And the state must not settle for less.