Commissioners pick location to secure for new Oklahoma County jail

Oklahoma County commissioners said Monday they hope to use a 192-acre property near Will Rogers World Airport as the location for a new county jail.

The city of Oklahoma City-owned site is bordered by Newcastle Road on the north, MacArthur Boulevard on the west, SW 54 on the south and the airport's rental car return center on the east.

The property is just north of the Will Rogers Air National Guard base and tarmac space on the airport's northwest quadrant.

"This is an exciting day," said Brian Maughan, chairman of the county commissioners.

Commissioner Carrie Blumert applauded work done by Steve Mason and other members of Oklahoma County's Citizens Bond Oversight Advisory Board to bring commissioners a choice the county and its residents could support.

More: Northeast OKC residents say no thanks to donation of land for new county jail

The county and city still must negotiate a purchase price for the property and county officials said Monday they hope that happens quickly.

"This process has taken several months, and I am happy we are finally to this point," said Blumert. "We have a lot of work to do behind the scenes to make this a reality, but I feel good about our choice today because we are not affecting neighborhoods or schools — it is already in an industrial area."

Proximity to courthouse, access to utilities considered for new jail site

Blumert and other commissioners said various issues factored into their choice to select the land north of the airport, including its distance from Oklahoma County's courthouse, travel time between the two properties, the suitability of the property as a construction site and access to available utilities.

Commissioners said the new $300 million building won't be a tower and the site is big enough to allow diversion partners to operate there, including a behavioral health center being paid for using $40 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The act requires the health center be designed by the end of 2024 and built by the end of 2026 to avoid forfeiting those dollars.

Commissioner Myles Davidson said this week's site selection was important to keeping the county on track to meet those timeline requirements.

"$40 million is a pretty difficult thing to get from the public through property taxes. We actually were committed only $260 million through bonds, so this actually helps us build the facility that we need," he said.

The site, he said, is large enough to provide the county with the space it needs today and room for future expansion as the county continues to grow.

"This gives us a jail for tomorrow and then much larger down the road," Davidson said.

The effort to build a new county jail began in late 2021. The trust that currently operates the jail and sheriffs have dealt with issues since the jail was built in 1991. A July health inspection found bedbugs again and more failures to check on inmates regularly. A state multicounty grand jury in March called for control of the jail to be returned to the sheriff because of the high number of deaths under the trust.

The Oklahoma County jail has had seven inmate deaths this year. The last one was in late September.

21st century technology to play role in future jail's mission

Commissioners made their selection this week after Mason's board reduced the number of properties under consideration to just four.

Other locations commissioners considered included a second one close to the airport, the existing jail site downtown and a 71-acre property located at 1901 E Grand Blvd. offered for sale by Willowbrook Investments LLC and Garrett & Company Resources LLC.

Commissioner Davidson said he and other county officials recognize the future jail will have to rely on technologies everyone became familiar with during the COVID-19 pandemic to handle much of its day-to-day business with the courthouse.

Commissioner Maughan agreed but added care must be taken to ensure the county can get detainees to and from court hearings and provide them with access to needed services when they are released from custody.

"We are all going to have to get used to this being on a little bit of an outer loop. This is not like we are accustomed to now, where our jail is just four blocks away from the courthouse. None of the sites were," Maughan said.

"What I like about this property ... is that it is the only one submitted where we could acquire it without taking something off the property tax roles. This one won't have a fiscal impact to the county. That's maybe not so significant in an individual year, but if you look out over the next 75 years (hopefully the life span of this building) that would be pretty significant."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Pick for new Oklahoma County jail location is next to OKC airport