Safety, security concerns rank high among supporters of effort to keep county jail downtown

Impacts to area schools, their students and to the safety and security of nearby residents are chief among concerns held by many who oppose moving Oklahoma County's jail away from downtown Oklahoma City.

On Wednesday, Oklahoma County commissioners heard from a parade of concerned school and city leaders who told them that putting a jail close to where they live would present unreasonable safety risks for students and more broadly harm the school systems that serve them by artificially lowering property values.

Commissioners voted to select 1901 E Grand as the location for the new jail after hearing hours of objections to that location and others.

Educators and administrators from the Midwest City-Del City school system, Millwood Public Schools and Crooked Oak Public Schools pleaded for commissioners to keep the jail downtown, even after they and commissioners were told about a transportation plan Oklahoma City's Criminal Justice Advisory Council is developing to get released detainees away from where the jail is built.

Plan would offer released detainees rides from jail to service providers

The ultimate goal of the transportation plan is to make sure every detainee released from the jail can access key programs and services that could help them get back on their feet, said Timothy Tardibono, the council's executive director.

Tardibono said the Diversion Hub and The Employment and Education Ministry (TEEM) already provide transportation services between the jail and their facilities to detainees who either voluntarily seek help or are released from detention on conditional bonds.

He said the council also is talking with the City Rescue Mission and another service provider to expand transportation services to their operations as well.

The plan, he told commissioners, is to provide shuttle services to those providers between the hours of 7 a.m. and midnight, daily. Currently, the Diversion Hub and TEEM provide shuttle services during regular business hours.

As for detainees released between midnight and 7 a.m., Tardibono said the jail designer is working to incorporate a space into its plans where released detainees could stay until shuttle services were available.

"We are still working with the providers" to get the programs established, he told commissioners, but added he didn't expect that would be a problem.

"All the executive directors are very optimistic and want to be involved," Tardibono said. "If we can get everything lined up this year, then we would go to (jail CEO Brandi) Garner and the jail trust and ask if we could start piloting the process so that we could work out all the wrinkles before that new jail and behavioral health care center opens."

More: Sue Ann Arnall's resignation leaves lingering questions about jail funding problems

"The goal is to give everyone access to services," he said. "The caveat is, we can't make them go into a building or accept a program's services, but we can deliver them to the doorstep of all of these providers."

"I appreciate you working on this," said Commissioner Carrie Blumert. "I know transportation from whatever site we select (is something community members) have spoken about a lot."

But Michael Washington of the Oklahoma Coalition Against People Abuse, a frequent jail operations critic, called the transportation proposal "poppycock" intended only to make it seem like commissioners care about protecting the future jail's neighbors.

"Why don't you try to be real with people around here? Where are you going to get the money from? You already are short, right? Do you expect taxpayers to increase the financing for you? That's not going to work," Washington exclaimed.

Educators also doubtful transportation plan holds promise

Nadine Gallagher, a teacher at Crooked Oak Public Schools who leads its association of classroom teachers, told commissioners her association's members overwhelmingly oppose 1901 E Grand as the Oklahoma County jail's new home.

In addition to it being within a mile of Crooked Oak's main campus, it also would be close to a large Christian School, preschool and day care programs, and would pose risks to children who attend nearby schools within the Midwest City-Del City school system, Gallagher said.

"I heard the talk about how great your proposed transportation plan is going to be, but knowing a little something about the Constitution, you can't make someone get on a bus, and if they want to leave on foot, they are going to be on foot.

"They are going to be on foot a mile from a school that is an open campus. When my children go to the library, they leave the building. They leave the building to go to lunch. They leave the building to go to gym, to art and band, and we don't need people that we don't want walking past our school because they bonded out of the jail a mile down the road," Gallagher said.

Gallagher also questioned whether taxpayers would be willing to see more of their tax dollars be used to shuttle detainees between the jail and Oklahoma County's courthouse if the jail were moved out of downtown, and questioned where funds would come from to establish substations at the new jail for the Oklahoma City Police Department and Oklahoma County sheriff.

"Financially, this is a train wreck for the county," Gallagher said. "Who is going to pay for all this? This is ill-conceived. It is irresponsible and it is dangerous. Every single person that I have spoken to about this jail understands that this jail needs to be where the jail (already) is," she said. "that is where the infrastructure is to support a jail."

Gina Standridge, a member of Midwest City-Del City's board of education, asked commissioners to dismantle a land swap deal Commissioner Myles Davidson proposes to make with Crooked Oak to move its athletics site farther away from the jail and closer to its main campus.

"We have close to 2,000 homes in that area you are going to impact. While they aren't $500,000 homes, they are somebody's mansion," Standridge said.

As for that potential deal, Crooked Oak Superintendent Bradley M. Richards said Thursday he has no plans to bring a proposal to his board for consideration until he receives one from Oklahoma County.

"I'm waiting and watching like everyone else," Richards told The Oklahoman Thursday.

Feared property value changes could hurt area schools, principals say

Katherine Kirk, the principal at Mid-Del's Epperly Heights Elementary School, told commissioners her number one job each day is to keep her 650 students and staff safe and and inspired to learn.

"If you put the jail at 19th and Grand, 300 yards away, that's not forward progress," said Kirk, who added having a jail in her school's backyard would make it more difficult to fill its teacher vacancies.

"We fight every day to give our kids hope, a future, a chance to be better and do better. Contrary to what you all may believe, a new jail in our community would absolutely not enhance a community that is in a fight for its life," she said.

Steve Gilliland, principal of Del City High School agreed.

"I think we have our priorities mixed up. We send our kids to buildings that are older than our current county jail," Gilliland said, adding, "education is part of the solution, not part of the problem."

Cecilia Robinson-Woods, Millwood Public Schools' superintendent, agreed the jail needs to stay downtown because she fears it could harm property values in school districts like Crooked Oak and Mid-Del, districts that can't afford the hits a jail there would deliver to their operational budgets and bonding capacities.

"When you do that, you decrease ... public services," she said.

'Their voices haven't been heard'

Pam Finch, Del City's vice mayor, told commissioners her ward backs up to the jail location and that she ran for office to improve the community for its residents.

"I have made headway. I've cleaned up parks so our children can go out and play and so our senior citizens feel safe and protected. If you put that jail here, we will lose that," she said.

Rick Cobb, Mid-Del's superintendent, said he checks Oklahoma County's website weekly to keep track of potential locations where a jail might be built, and saw three potential locations inside of his district and the others on its edge.

"Those are where our kids are walking, those are where our neighborhoods stop and industrial development begins, and if you put a jail there, it hurts our kids," Cobb said. "I have not heard a valid explanation about why (downtown) is not being considered."

Keeping the jail downtown would provide detainees and their families access to services they need before, during and after their temporary incarcerations, Cobb said.

"A jail that isn't co-located with a courthouse doesn't make sense to me," Cobb said.

He also called out a post Commissioner Davidson recently made on Facebook where he said the community must work collaboratively to find alternative solutions that would enable it to build a new county jail to address public safety concerns plus meet today's standards for holding people who are arrested and charged with crimes.

The process thus far only has left many county residents feeling frustrated and disrespected, he observed.

"What part of this process has been collaborative?" asked Cobb. "You have people from, I feel like, the forgotten corners of Oklahoma County who don't feel like their voices have been heard."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Opponents say jail location should remain in downtown Oklahoma City