Sheriff to quit jail oversight Jan. 1

In a strongly worded letter, Oklahoma County Sheriff P.D. Taylor said Wednesday his office will no longer assist in the day-to-day operations of the jail starting Jan. 1.

He told the jail trust to take over operational authority of the 13- story jail in downtown Oklahoma City at one minute after midnight that day.

“We, through no fault of our own, have experienced a mass exodus of employees due to their confusion and outright distrust of the County Commissioners and the Trust when it comes to their future employment, benefits and the like,” the sheriff wrote. “In our current state of disastrously low staffing levels, we simply cannot operate in a proper manner and will soon have to seek outside assistance if we are to maintain adequate services.”

He told the trust that the jail has gone through massive positive changes since he took over as sheriff but “we have simply hit a wall” because of a lack of funding and “there is nothing more we can do.”

He also said that since a trust spokeman and county commissioners have essentially stated that the jail is so mismanaged that only the trust can remedy its problems, “you must agree that is it time for the Trust to immediately take over to eliminate any further alleged mismanagement.”

The sheriff sent the letter to the chair of the board of trustees of the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority after consulting with his legal counsel in the Oklahoma County district attorney's office.