Reports detail ongoing health and safety issues at Oklahoma County Jail
Two recently issued reports detail a litany of continuing health and safety problems at the long-troubled Oklahoma County jail, which has been run by a county trust since July 2020.
Among the problems highlighted in those reports were a lack of inmate access to showers and clean bedding, bed bugs, unsupervised open doors and holes in cell walls that allowed inmates to move freely from cell to cell. The jail remains short on staff, and inspectors cited concerns about training and safety procedures among the jail workers.
Meanwhile, the jail's population is on the rise as hundreds of inmates wait there to be transferred to the state's prisons.
The jail failed an inspection by the Oklahoma State Department of Health on June 23, which led to the removal of all juveniles being held in the facility. On Oct. 21, the health department did a surprise follow-up inspection, which the jail also failed.
More: It's been over a year since a trust took over the troubled Oklahoma County Jail. What's changed?
In June, the health department noted 35 deficiencies within the jail. October’s inspection noted 29 deficiencies. On both occasions, some violations were repeat occurrences while others were first-time problems.
In addition to the failed health inspections, a report highlighting many of the ongoing problems with recommendations for improvement was issued by The National Institute of Corrections, a federal agency.
Jail Administrator Greg Williams and Trust Chair Jim Couch said the federal consultants were invited to the jail in May to provide input and guidance on the situation the county jail trust had inherited.
"There was a lot of apprehension. There was a lot of concern about how things were going, there was a lot of turnover at the time," Couch said. "It was an unstable time for us when we took it over."
At least a dozen people have died in the past 12 months while in jail custody, including an inmate shot by police after taking a jail worker hostage, and several people have escaped from the facility. The Oklahoma County District Attorney also has launched an investigation into the jail and the trust.
"We're a service agency and we're providing a service to the community," Couch said. "I know sometimes we could do a better job, but it isn't because we're not trying and it isn't because our heart's not in the right place."
Poor health and living conditions in the jail
The National Institute of Corrections noted that “sanitation of the facility was very disturbing,” and that housing units were “in poor condition.”
The state listed concerns about showers failing to drain or with "a build-up of dirt, debris and trash." The federal agency also found that "shower areas were without lighting, unsanitary with drains clogged and holding standing water"
Williams acknowledged trash can be an issue when inmates dispose of it inappropriately causing drains to become clogged.
The health department found that those housed in the jail were not being provided with showers or bedding in compliance with department standards. The state requires showers at least three times per week.
Some jail residents were not offered any chance to shower during a week, while others were given only one or two chances, the report noted. Bedding is required to be exchanged weekly, but according to the health department happens much less frequently.
"Records revealed laundry is exchanging blankets at least once every seven (7) weeks, in accordance with Oklahoma County Sheriff's policy," the health report states.
Williams said he believes much of the issue is simply an error in recordkeeping. Williams said the health department wants records for individual inmates, which hasn't been the standard procedure for the jail.
"It's documentation," he said. "Typically we'll document a pod is exchanged because we'll take enough bedding and clothing and exchanges to an entire pod."
Williams said his staff needs to do a better job because "if it's not documented then they (inspectors) consider it not happening."
Insects and other vermin are listed in both reports as a cause for concern, with specific emphasis placed on the presence of bed bugs. Couch said the issue with bed bugs has continued to be a priority for jail leadership and the jail has seen an improvement.
Williams said the jail is being sprayed nearly weekly, with special focus on high-traffic areas such as intake and holding. Pods on floors 2, 4, and 6 were the first to receive spray treatments and Williams said it has been successful.
"We've been very reactive, but we're getting to be more proactive," he said.
Staffing and policy predicaments continue
The National Institute of Corrections noted a “tremendously high attrition rate" among staff and that insufficient staffing led to “quick hiring without proper background checks of unqualified people.”
Williams has continued to express a need for increasing staffing at jail trust meetings, but continues to have trouble with recruitment and retention.
"It's hard work. It's sometimes depressing, but it's a wonderful place to work if you really care about people and society as a whole," he said.
Williams said that when the sheriff turned over control of the facility last year, the jail trust lost access to equipment and software used for background checks along with certifications required by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
"We're up to speed on that and we've done this. We now have our own fingerprint machine where we can run backgrounds and we can run reference checks," he said.
Meanwhile, according to the health department, “the facility failed to ensure sufficient staffing to perform all assigned functions relating to security, custody and supervision of inmates.”
This shortage along with a failure by staff to follow procedure or the lack of complete and updated policies were observed by both the health department and the National Institute of Corrections.
Mental health assessments at intake and sight checks during detention were listed as repeat violations by the state health department. Annual policy reviews, including for the jail’s health contractor, Turn Key Medical, failed to occur based on the health inspection.
More: Oklahoma County grand jury seated to investigate jail and Pardon and Parole Board
The National Institute of Corrections also had concerns that staff training "was insufficient to train qualified Detention Officers" citing that it lasted only two weeks, which could mean it lacked detail.
"When we took over in July, it was one week — the sheriff's training was one week — and we doubled that immediately to two weeks in class and one week of on-the-job training," Williams said.
Williams said he is also developing additional curriculum to bring the training to a total of four weeks, and frequently sends employees back for retraining if there are areas that need improvement. He said originally there had to be some tradeoff between training and getting people onboarded because of the lack of employees.
"You'll never have enough training," he said. "There's things that we can all learn and there's things that we can all improve on so I don't think anybody will ever be overtrained."
Continued overpopulation and security concerns
Staffing issues often are exacerbated by overpopulation. At its peak, the jail saw inmate population levels well over 2,000.
Despite officials working to reduce overall population, October saw a rise in daily counts with the average daily population for the month at 1,845, Williams said.
The daily average number of people waiting to be transferred to the state Corrections Department was about 200 in October. This means that roughly 10% to 12% of the jail's population are those bound for state facilities.
According to Mark Opgrande, director of communications for the jail, unless the jail exceeds the state health department occupancy rating it cannot require the transfer of people to the state Corrections Department.
“Right now we are 1,100 under that rated capacity, so we do not have the ability to do that,” he said. “The state uses the health department capacity so we do not have control over that number.”
The health department’s October inspection lists the jail's rated capacity at 2,890 inmates. According to the standards used when the jail was built, the capacity is only 1,200.
More: Legislative studies examine possibilities for Oklahoma jail and prison reform
The health department report states there must be at least 60 square feet of space in cells for two inmates. Overpopulation leads to double- and triple-celling violations noted by the department, which calculates most of the jail's cells at 49.5 square feet — only enough for single occupancy, according to the report.
"We've been through and we've measured every cell in the jail and if you go by the square footage, our capacity is about 1,598," Williams said.
Other security issues include holes between cells "large enough to allow inmates to move without restriction from cell to cell in a line inside pods." The NIC said these issues not only highlight security issues created by indirect supervision but also in the overall poor construction and architectural design of the jail.
There were also areas with doors or gates left open. The federal report notes that consultants found a "back gate to the Maintenance Yard open." Just last month, a man sentenced to time in a state prison awaiting transfer escaped while working as a maintenance trustee after stealing a gate remote and keys to an employee's car.
Williams said the two incidents were not related.
"The person that was able to escape, he went through a door — he was ready — as soon as that door opened he took off because he knew a truck had just come in," he said.
Is the current jail salvageable?
Problems at the jail have persisted since it was built. Even in its earliest days, Sheriff J.D. Sharp said he did not have the means to run the jail.
Many of the recommendations provided by the jail trust's own action committee and another consultant align with those from the National Institute for Corrections. Revamping of the inmate classification system, changes to agency culture and conversion to direct supervision are among top recommendations. Ideas also include improved training and setting clear expectations for both staff and those housed in the jail.
While most agree on the problems facing the jail, coming to an agreement on the solution seems to be more evasive. The idea of building a new jail has been floated for some time, which has met with mixed reactions from citizens.
Couch and Williams say their goal is to continue working on improvements because the timeline for a new jail is still several years in the future and has hurdles to overcome.
"It's exciting, but our eyes are still focused on the jail at hand and making sure we continue to do the improvements here," Couch said.
More: Multi-million dollar Oklahoma County jail options presented, citizens call for community investment
The Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Advisory Council met Thursday and its facility subcommittee officially recommended the construction of a new jail. The recommendation came after months of consulting with architectural firms, financial experts, and other stakeholders such the Oklahoma Disability Law Center, whose investigators aided the facility subcommittee in their findings.
Joy Turner, director of investigation and monitoring for the center, said the group began an independent investigation of the jail in 2019 while it was under the control of former Sheriff P.D. Taylor. Some of the major concerns, she said, were "an overwhelming lack of mental health care," medication administration problems and continued work on helping people avoid jail time.
"We have got to have real jail diversion programs," she said. "It's got to be front end."
While the council is not a governing body of the jail, several members of the jail trust serve on the board, and it does submit recommendations to the trust. Couch said if a new jail is built, there are specific areas he hopes to see improvements focused in.
"Our intake and release areas are challenging in this area, the medical unit is a challenge, the elevators are a challenge," he said. "We don't have the proper recreation areas. There's a lot of things that are almost impossible to do in this jail."
Couch said the community would need to rally behind financing and supporting a new jail without neglecting efforts to run the current jail more efficiently and professionally.
Despite recommending a new jail, one point raised by the facility subcommittee, members of the board and public commenters was a need for “temporary improvements” at the current facility to “address issues today.”
Couch said work will need to continue to support efforts to improve mental health and substance use options and provide housing for homeless and diversion options.
"There's a lot of ongoing movement, positive movement, in a lot of different areas right now and we want to keep that momentum going," he said.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Reports detail ongoing health, safety issues at Oklahoma County jail
