James Coburn
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma County voters could be asked to fund a new Oklahoma County Jail to the tune of $436 million.
Two preliminary concept designs of the Oklahoma County Adult Detention Center were presented at a meeting of the Oklahoma County Commissioners Wednesday morning by Frankfurt-Short-Bruza. Building a new facility would be $45 million cheaper than renovating the current jail site with a structural addition made to the property.
“The price tag on that is somewhat staggering,” said Ray Vaughn, Oklahoma County commissioner. “I think it’s going to be very difficult for our citizens to get comfortable with that number.”
County Commissioners were shown two conceptual designs. One conceptual design depicted the current Oklahoma County Jail facility combined with an annex next door at nearly 1.3 million square feet. The preliminary cost estimate for this project is $436 million, said Fred Schmidt, Frankfurt-Short-Bruza director of architecture and project manager.
The second design layout combining the sheriff’s office, intake center, laundry and food service area, warehouse and social support depicts a new 1.1-million square foot facility with an estimated cost of $391 million, Schmidt said. This proposed new facility would be built on a 50-acre site within five miles of downtown. Property is not available downtown to accommodate the plan, Vaughn said.
Bob Swartz of HOK Architects presented four different multi-story configurations of low rise and high rise concepts for the new facility plan.
Said Pulitzer, “All of these spaces, all of the standards, all of the housing distribution are equally applied, whether it’s reuse with the annex or whether it’s with the new (facility).”
County Commissioners Vaughn, Willa Johnson and Brian Maughan said they would look for any possible cost savings in either plan.
Oklahoma County voters approved a one-year, 1-cent sales tax in 1987 to raise $43 million for jail construction. The jail opened in November 1991 with 1,200 cells and space for the Sheriff’s Department. The current facility has a capacity for 2,212 inmates, said Curtis Pulitzer of Pulitzer/Bogard Associates.
“Projected needs, we’re looking at about 3,700 inmates projected for the year 2027,” Pulitzer said. Housing is planned to meet capacity needs.
Today, there are 490 people employed at the Oklahoma County Jail, Pulitzer said. Four hundred additional staff members would be needed to handle this projected volume in a new facility. And staffing would be more efficient in a new facility with a 50 percent larger projected inmate population, Pulitzer added.
Structural changes needed to meet federal requirements
The U.S. Department of Justice issued a report in 2008 that the jail is understaffed and overcrowded. Several million dollars in settlements have been paid by the government due to substandard conditions. The government pulled 160 federal inmates from the facility following the report.
National standards of the American Correctional Association were used when doing the operational assessment of the facility, said Karen Albert, who has more than 25 years of experience in juvenile and criminal justice administration and consulting.
“We’ve also done a lot of work throughout the nation and have seen many jail facilities built,” Albert said. “We’ve learned a great deal about operational efficiencies.”
She said the staffing has not been sufficient to monitor control rooms at the facility. The Department of Justice has recommended that the housing pods be staffed as well, she said. One staff person per 50 inmates has not been an efficient use of the facility, Albert said. ADA compliance is also lacking at the facility, she said. Also, the size of jail cells does not meet federal requirements for more than one inmate.
Federal law requires planning for the prevention of rape or sexual abuse in a correctional facility, Albert said. There are a number of blind spots in the facility for staff to observe, she cautioned.
“Also there are large sharing areas where you have the public visitors mixing with released offender, mixing with bonding agents, mixing with staff, mixing with law enforcement, she said. “It’s very difficult to control and not necessarily know if you’re releasing a member of the public or releasing an offender.”
Laminate ceilings at the Oklahoma County Jail need to be turned into hardened ceilings, Schmidt said. Laminate ceilings make it easy for inmates to distribute contraband, he said. Many of the codes for structural upgrades have changed since the facility was built in 1991, Schmidt said.
The new system will include video visitation, Pulitzer said. The district attorney and pubic defender would also benefit by having direct access to their clients prior to a trial, Pulitzer said.
“Probably the major thing on the mechanical side is we need to put in a new control system…to allow temperature control of different zones in the building,” Schmidt continued.
Best option for taxpayers
Vaughn asked if either of the proposed plans would be adequate for the county’s needs in 2027. Schmidt said the design recommendations exceed population growth predictions.
“When expansion does need to occur with the design proposed, it would be housing units that would be added and not some of the other expensive infrastructure in common areas,” Schmidt said.
Vaughn has said previously that he expects voters will be asked to fund a new Oklahoma County Jail sometime next spring.
“The alternatives are not good if we do nothing,” Vaughn said.
The type of tax, whether a sales tax or ad valorem property tax, has not been determined by the County Commissioners. In either case, if voters reject the eventual tax initiative, the Justice Department then would ask the court to appoint a receiver for the jail who could ask for authority to spend money on a new jail, Vaughn said. There would be no limit placed on the expense the receiver could incur to remedy problems at the Oklahoma County Jail, he said.
“None of us sitting up at this table especially, want to impose a tax increase to anybody for any reason,” Vaughn said. “Nevertheless, we have a sworn obligation to conduct the business of this county to protect our citizens from negative influences which we consider certainly the intervention of federal courts in the operation of our county.”
jcoburn@edmondsun.com | 341-2121, ext. 114
