Dwindling jail staff leads to cuts in programs
The Oklahoma County sheriff's office will suspend facility tours and“non essential” programming due to a recent surge of jail staff leaving their jobs, according to a department Facebook post.
That includes a new therapy dog program and the Reality check program, which educates at- risk youth on how bad life choices can lead them to jail.
“This decision was made in the best interest of detainee and employee safety ,” the post reads. “We are currently experiencing a significant loss of senior staff and certified officers to retirements and resignations due to uncertainty surrounding the Oklahoma County Jail Trust and future jail administrator.”
The Oklahoma County Jail Trust is a nine-member body created in May to oversee reforming the struggling
county jail, which has a decades-long history of inmate deaths, escapes, and violence, facility issues such as mold and U.S. Department of Justice oversight.
The trust voted this week to bring in an outside jail administrator to manage the day-to-day operations of the jail, removing the sheriff's office from the management process. A handful of other counties in the state operate their jails this way.
Sheriff P. D. Taylor has
repeatedly said the lack of clarity and detailed plans for how the transition will happen has caused his staff to be confused, worried and ultimately leave their jobs.
“These people want to maintain their current county benefits, so if they have the ability to retire and get those benefits, then that is what they're going to do,” said sheriff's office spokesperson Mark Myers.
The Facebook post says 36 employees have retired or resigned so far this month. Myers said there were applications out to find 50 detention officer last month.
“It's really bad right now. Someone needs to do something ,” Myers said .“We don't know the answers until we know, and a lot of times it's too late.”