The Department of Corrections will relocate its correctional officer training center from Wilburton to the Highway Patrol Training Center in Oklahoma City. The agency also will relocate a separate employee training facility from the College of Continuing Education at the University of Oklahoma to the Oklahoma City site.

The move is expected to save the state approximately $600,000 annually, without a reduction in services.

Closing the Wilburton facility is expected to save about $250,000 annually, and moving the training center at the College of Continuing Education will save another $350,000.

Staff at the Wilburton and OU facilities will be relocated to fill higher-priority positions currently vacant or understaffed at DOC.

The move should enhance recruitment and retention efforts, as well as save some correctional officers the cost of extensive travel to southeast Oklahoma to attend the more-than-month-long training sessions.