OKLAHOMA CITY – In a discussion forum hosted by the Greater OKC Chamber at The Petroleum Club Wednesday morning, criminal justice and diversion leaders made their case for the proposed new sales tax to fund a new Oklahoma County Detention Center.
If approved by voters on November 3rd, the new 0.4% sales tax would take effect for the next 25 years across Oklahoma County.
But proponents of the tax – including the Chamber, who until recently had remained undecided on the issue – said Wednesday that the new funding source will be able to provide a state-of-the-art new “campus” for detention, diversion, and treatment, and even floated the possibility of pulling in federal money for federal prisoners.
The event, which saw Tyler Media president and Criminal Justice Advisory Council chairperson Tony Tyler in conversation with Oklahoma Secretary of Public Safety Tricia Everest, Arnall Family Foundation program officer Perrin Duncan, and Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna, amounted to something of a sales pitch for the jail tax to voters.
“We could go through panel after panel as to why the [current] facility is broken and why we’ve already invested so many millions into the new spot,” Everest said from the stage, “but I know that this county can show everyone how they come together, and each elected official can have their names on a building and a detention facility – a whole complex – that we can all be so proud of.”
Talk of conditions, access
The primary focus from all of the panelists was the opportunity for a new jail facility to address and avoid the notoriously bad conditions of the current jail in downtown OKC.
Claims of inhumane living conditions in the current facility stretch back for years, seeing protests and pushback both inside and outside the jail and sparking numerous costly lawsuits, organizational squabbles, and violent, even deadly, incidents inside.
“We have a humanitarian crisis happening right here in our city,” Duncan said of the current jail conditions during the panel. “We’re paying for the failures. We’re paying for it through lawsuits. We’re paying for it through the fact that people’s mental health is deteriorating in our facility currently.”
The panelists each discussed what they said was the impracticality of attempting to repair or retrofit the current jail, citing flawed designs and short-sighted planning when the facility was built downtown more than three decades ago.
“It’s not been a great facility since day one,” Duncan said. ”It was built in 1991, and it’s 13 stories. There’s three elevators. It can’t pass a health inspection. It’s not really an adequate place for anyone to live.”
According to proposals, the new detention “campus” – to be located on the far eastern outskirts of OKC near Del City – would seek to rectify those issues by streamlining access, localizing resources and support, and housing the jail in a much wider, shorter building without the need for 13-story elevators.
Behenna floats financial incentive of housing federal prisoners
While much of the discussion centered on the financial loss to the County caused by lawsuits, inefficiency, and disorganization within the current jail, District Attorney Behenna also took a moment to float a way to generate County income with more available jail beds.
“15 years ago, Oklahoma County lost the federal contract to have federal detainees in our county jail because it was not humane and not safe,” Behenna offered. “I don’t know how much the federal government pays Brady County, Payne County, Logan County, Canadian County, and all the other counties where they house federal detainees, but that’s operational money that Oklahoma County, for the past 15 years, has missed out on because we don’t have a facility that meets federal standards.”
The proposed new jail could have between 1800 and 2000 available beds, a capacity increase of hundreds of extra beds compared to the current facility.
Behenna did not elaborate on whether any specific planning of the new jail could go to a specialized housing or intake area for federal prisoners or if they would likely be kept in general population alongside County convicts and pre-trial holds for recent arrests, which make up nearly 85% of the current jail population. Nor did she say if the County would consider contracting with federal immigration enforcement to use the new jail for pre-deportation detention and transport.
“If we think in terms of how cost-effective the jail is going to be,” she continued, “maybe a few more beds and a nice new humane facility that meets federal standards would bring the federal contracts back to Oklahoma County, and Oklahoma County would have those funds to use for operation.”
Behenna was expected to take questions following the panel, but was not able to stay, citing a prior engagement.
$260 million already spent; development plans already floated
Though the audience for the forum included Chamber members representing some of the largest developers and financial interests in Oklahoma City, no mention was made of the potential development plans that have already been released for the existing jail space.
A website touting the City of OKC’s Downtown Strategic Development Plan released in August appears to show a film studio and education campus on the grounds of the current detention center, a revelation that led District 3 County Commissioner candidate Jennifer Mayo to call the new jail plan a “land grab.”
Free Press reported those comments alongside news of the upcoming vote in August:
What was repeatedly addressed, however, was the $260 million already approved for new jail construction in 2022.
“$260 million was not enough to build the facility,” Duncan told press following the discussion. “With the rising costs of construction and really just the design that we needed in order to create a humane place to detain our residents, it was never enough.”
Duncan added that she was personally “frustrated” by that amount being approved and requested of voters before a more realistic long-term budget had been determined.
When asked by Free Press following the event what assurance can be given to voters that the new, roughly $600 million budget will be enough, Duncan stressed that builders and analysts have considered the number closely and have already signed off.
“The fact that Flintco has already agreed to that amount being enough to build the facility, I think we’ll have enough,” she said. “Also, I’ll say that because this is a 25-year sales tax, that revenue is not only going to be used to fill the gap of building the remaining part of the facility that’s not affordable currently, but also to help cover the costs of operating the facility.”
Vote less than one month away
With the Chamber using the event to publicly announce its support of the new sales tax and jail proposal, the forum played much like a campaign event aimed at promoting a “yes” vote and discussing the potential consequences of the tax failing to pass.
When asked directly what might happen if the vote fails to pass, Everest posed: “Do I need to open up one of our state prisons? I mean, we’ll have to. That’s the absolute, 100% disaster of what’s going to happen.”
District 1 County Commissioner Jason Lowe, one of the most vocal and openly critical opponents of the new sales tax and jail proposal, was on hand as an audience member at the event, but when approached by Free Press for comment following the panel, he declined to offer a rebuttal.
“Yeah, I’m not commenting today,” he said.
The 25-year, 0.4% sales tax for funding new jail construction and operation will be on the General Election ballot in Oklahoma County on November 3rd.
Brett Fieldcamp is the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
