Overcrowding plagues county jails

By John Walker
The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN October 28, 2007 12:24 pm

— Stephens County is not the only county with overcrowding problems in its jail.
“I’ve talked with other county commissioners around the state,” said Commissioner Dee Bowen, “and many have a far worse problem than we do.”
About a month ago, the inspector of county jails for the Oklahoma Department of Health told Stephens County that it needed to build a new and bigger jail because the older jail that is still being used is unhealthy.
“We are still using the older jail,” said Sheriff Jimmie Bruner, “because the new jail is filled to capacity with men. We have to utilize the old jail for women, juveniles and the overflow from the new jail.
“When we built the jail, it met state guidelines and now the guidelines have changed and we are asked to foot the bill to alter our situation.”
Stephens County is not the only county that has received this mandate.
“We’ve got the same problem at both ends of my district,” said state Sen. Anthony Sykes. “Cleveland County has been told they need a new jail. The Department of Corrections approached the Cleveland County Commission about working on an arrangement to take some overflow prison population in return for some funding help.”
“It’s a complex problem.”
“We have about a 95 percent capacity filled on a regular basis in our state penitentiary system,” said state Rep. Joe Dorman. “We don’t want the feds to take over the system like they did in the past, so the state is putting greater pressure on the counties to hold more prisoners, for a longer time period so the state meets the federal mandates.”
“Building a new jail,” said Bowen, “would entail raising taxes, and I don’t want to do that to build a new jail again.”
“I don’t feel it’s right,” said state Sen. Don Barrington, “for the state to create mandates against a county that previously met the guidelines without helping to fund the project, at least in part.”
“It is hypocritical,” said state Rep. Joe Dorman, “for the state to tell the counties that they are doing things wrong when the state is the one causing the problem.
“Most of the inmates are DUI felons. When we get the audit report back at the end of the year, it should list some possible alternative solutions for these felons that would free up space in our prisons.”
Bruner said, “We have prisoners here that have been scheduled to go to the Department of Corrections since January and yet they are still here.
“We have tons of warrants that we can’t fill because we have no room for them in our jail.”