Sheriff will no longer oversee jail
In the coming months, the Oklahoma County jail will be operated by an outside j ail administrator rather than through the sheriff's office following a vote from the Oklahoma County Jail Trust.
At their Monday meeting, trustees voted 6- 2 to state their intention of hiring an administrator and to begin the process of finding that person. At a planning session earlier this month, trustees discussed this likely possibility, saying an outside administrator would have new ideas to fix old problems at the seriously struggling county jail.
“It will give a fresh perspective ,” Chair woman Tricia Everest said after the meeting. “We'll be able to look at policies that have been built on top of each other and try to unravel those. Today' s move certainly opens up possibilities. There area lot of questions and levels to look at, but I believe that the trust spoke that they are ready to serve the county in a new way.”
Sheriff P. D. Taylor voted against the change. He said the transition will bring chaos as j ail operations are separated from the other duties of the sheriff's office, as well
as leaving behind the main underlying issue that hasn't been addressed: funding.
“It' s going to be total chaos,” Taylor said. “In my opinion, what they've done is created another huge layer of bureaucracy. Now you'll have more people fighting over the same pot of money.”
Oklahoma County will join just a handful of other counties in the state where the county jail is run by an administrator rather than the sheriff, but the switch will not happen immediately.
A job description will be presented to the trust at its Sept. 9 meeting, but t he details of how long the application period will be, how interviews will be conducted, the person's salary and more have not been decided.
The administrator will report to the trust and receive operation funding through county revenues and various fees similar to the sheriff's office.
The sheriff's office will continue to receive county funding to provide security, serve warrants and operate law enforcement for the unincorporated portions of the county, along with all other requirements by law.
This upcoming vote has been a point of tension since the creation of the trust, which is responsible for reforming the jail. The trust had the option to allow the sheriff to keep running the jail, to hire an outside administrator or to hire a private company.
There was a general consensus that a private company wasn't the answer, but the sheriff advocated for the jail
to continue being run by his office. Jail employees agreed and said detention officers quit their jobs because of confusion and uncertainty about the future.
At Monday' s meeting, multiple former or current public defenders spoke about their desire for an outside jail administrator to come in and fix the various hygiene, safety and medical issues, among other things.
Trustee and Oklahoma County Commissioner Kevin Calvey, who has been a vocal critic of how the jail has been run, said the decision has been thought about and vetted by various grand juries, public committees and task forces.
“To me, it is not a hasty decision,” Calvey said. “It is something that citizens have been asking for for quite some time.”
Trustee Francie Ekwerekwu said this change is needed for the situation at the jail to improve.
“Pl e nty of people have tried to do things, and some changes have been made to the sheriff' s credit ,” Ekwerekwu said. “But in order to see some things realized, … I think we've got to move forward. Change is upon us, and we need to make decisions that create the path that will improve matters for the inmates at the jail, the employees at the jail and the public.”