Last Updated on February 1, 2024, 12:00 PM | Published: January 30, 2024
OKLAHOMA CITY — After almost 10 months of considering any site other than the current one where the jail sits downtown, Oklahoma County Commissioners are facing increasing opposition to the way they are thinking about site selection.
At a town hall Monday night, two local OKC state legislators, three OKC City Council members, and a Dell City Council member were on stage for a panel to consider issues with the current jail site selection process.
Specifically, numerous people from the historical-black Eastside and from Del City filled every one of the 283 seats in the auditorium of MetroTech on Martin Luther King, with the walls lined with even more stern-looking residents.
From the flow of the evening, it seems the Oklahoma County Commissioners are facing even more opposition to their persistent refusal to consider ways in which they could purchase land adjacent to the current site in western downtown OKC to build the new jail in the current location.
Only one of the three commissioners were present: Commissioner Carrie Blumert whose road district includes a large part of the historic Eastside. Commissioners Myles Davidson and Brian Maughan did not attend, which seemed to rankle members of the crowd.
However, the commissioners are typically hyper-vigilant about even two of them not attending the same event where county business is discussed in order to avoid running afoul of Oklahoma’s Open Meetings Act.
This lingering struggle to find a location for a new jail pulls commissioners into new political territory for them.
Commissioners have little or no experience at handling this level of opposition from so many segments of the OKC metro about one topic all at once.
It’s not that they don’t hear opposition to their ideas about zoning or land use. But, in most cases, it’s a small group of neighbors to a particular parcel who are complaining.
But, in this case, it has been whole swaths of the metro who have at first taken turns, and are now unified, against the commissioners’ ideas about where to put the new jail.
It’s a dynamic that Oklahoma City Council members often see, but not the Oklahoma County Commissioners.
What about the current site?
At least two of the three commissioners’ — Davidson and Maughan — have mounted active resistance to expanding the current site.
That resistance is prompting increased questioning of their agenda.
The lack of discussion about the location of a new jail before the bond vote is drawing more scrutiny in hindsight now that more residents are becoming frustrated with the process.
“I don’t think that anyone understood where the jail was going to go,” said activist Jess Eddy in his presentation. “Or, it wasn’t communicated to us whether that amount of money was enough….”
The current site is within walking distance of the Oklahoma County Courthouse, attorney’s offices, public transit, and a wide range of social services for detainees who are released and their families.
The discussion
A red thread ran through the entire evening as one speaker after another cited the avoidance of the downtown site as a possible location for the new jail.
Jess Eddy
Activist Jess Eddy used slides projected at the front of the auditorium to show different site sizes and make a case for the possibility of using the current location plus land acquisition next to it to create a space for a new low-rise jail.
Most damaging for commissioners who are arguing that there is not enough room to build on the current site, Eddy showed how the City of Tulsa has a larger-capacity detention center — 2,000 beds, 800 more than the current jail — on two stories fitted into just 19 acres.
Eddy showed how the current site could be expanded by purchasing neighboring land from landowners who have already said that they would be ready to entertain offers.
Eddy also spoke out loud the quiet suspicion that a growing number of county residents have: That the push for a bigger site — 40 to 80 acres — indicates that the commissioners want a much larger facility than was proposed to voters in the bond election.
“They don’t have the dollars to build a new jail,” said Eddy during the presentation. “And they’re gonna come to you as soon as they select the site and ask you to pony up more money for a massive facility, you know, probably the size of Penn Square Mall. And I for one, don’t think a that we have anywhere near that many people who are so dangerous that they need to be confined like that.”
State Representative Jason Lowe
Oklahoma State Representative Jason Lowe raised the same issue about why the site was not designated before the bond vote.
Lowe spent the most time, though, making the point about proximity to services from the current jail site.
- Oklahoma County Courthouse — 0.5 miles away
- OKC Municipal Court — 500 feet away (across the street)
- New Oklahoma City Police Dept. HQ — 600 feet away
- Numerous bus stops within a block of the jail
- Diversion courts
- Diversion Hub and TEEM
“Why do we want to move the Oklahoma County Jail? It makes absolutely no sense,” said Lowe to applause.
And, the most open agreement and applause was from Lowe’s point about what he and others consider to be a large set of motivations for moving the jail sight out of downtown
“What do they want to build at that current location?” asked Lowe. What do you think, folks? High-rise tower?”
“Commercial interests should never trump public interest and the public is against the jail being built in their backyards,” Lowe shouted as applause rose.
OKC Ward 6 Councilwoman JoBeth Hamon
Hamon started her comments by claiming her viewpoint of abolishing the current incarceration system.
But with that out of the way, Hamon recounted her discussions with city leaders who so far have no models or schemes for how to assess what they will need in a jail.
Hamon argued that to have the location of the jail in a remote location from transportation and other services will mean that people will just be let out on the side of a highway when they are released.
“We are detaining people who are incredibly vulnerable people who are already in extreme economic distress,” said Hamon. “And when they’re released within the downtown grid, they already struggle to … reintegrate in the community. Why do we expect that they’re going to have any more success if they’re out on the fringes and in the margins, even more so.”
Hamon closed by saying that she lives only blocks away from the current site and is willing to have a new jail in the same place.
“I want it to be in my backyard,” said Hamon.
State Representative Forrest Bennett
Bennett represents an Oklahoma House district that includes an area near downtown and onto the south side.
Bennett reinforced the argument about keeping the jail close to current services for effective recovery from incarceration and for less cost to rebuild services around a new, remote jail site.
“If we all agree that we know that outcomes are better when people are released,” said Bennett, “and have immediate access to resources, and that if we don’t build where it already is, or close, we’ll have to build those resources around it. And that cost goes up. The logical conclusion is build where it is.”
Del City Councilwoman Claudia Brown
Brown argued that if the new jail is put at SE 44 and Grand Blvd right across the street from Del City, that municipality would have to endure paying for more city services.
“Economically, we [Del City] wouldn’t be able to afford it. I mean, administratively, community development, economic development, we will be ruined financially, we can’t afford it.”
“It’s not fair,” said Brown. “All of the Edmond sites are gone. You know, all of these other sites were gone real quick, real quick. Mine was gone a couple of times, maybe three times, and it keeps coming back. And I don’t know why I’m still not getting the answers as to why it’s still coming back.”
OKC Ward 2 Councilman James Cooper
Cooper spent his allotted time speaking against the current system of incarceration and the nature of a punishment-based incarceration system that is not focused on rehabilitation.
Mid-Del Supt Rick Cobb
Cobb argued that the proximity to an elementary school in the Mid-Del School system should be enough to prohibit the county from building a jail about a mile away.
However, so far, that has not stopped the commissioners from strongly considering the SE 44th site near Trosper Park.
Cobb drew the most applause by strongly countering the argument that John Rex Charter School is nearby the current jail, and that’s a problem, too.
“John Rex charter school chose to be there,” said Cobb about the school started long after the jail was built in the current site. “They chose to put a school there …. The last I saw, they don’t have students walking to and from John Rex. And so, it’s not an anti John Rex comment. It’s not an anti-charter-school comment. It’s just to say that the argument doesn’t hold water.”
Two long-term leaders speak
Two long-term, beloved community leaders from the Eastside each spoke briefly: Marilyn Hildreth, daughter of famed Civil Rights leader Clara Luper; and, Pastor J.A. Reed of Fairview Missionary Baptist Church.
Hildreth spoke about the need for political action and how important it is to persist in demanding that political leaders listen.
“We have a responsibility to vote if they can’t do what we want them to d, get them out of office,” said Hildreth to applause.
Reed referred to the many times that they have been to Board of County Commissioner meetings and the land proposed in NE OKC has been taken off only to have another parcel returned.
“Is it a matter that they don’t believe us?” said Reed to shouts and applause. “We’ve said no jail will be built in NE Oklahoma City, and that’s what we mean. No jail will be built here.”
UPDATE — After publication we added information about the commissioners’ concern to not attend the same event at the same time in order to avoid conflicts under the Oklahoma Open Meetings Act.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
