Oklahoma County officials ‘extremely worried’ as they try to find site for new jail

Oklahoma County still hopes to build a new jail near Will Rogers World Airport.

But county officials are once again actively exploring where else they might locate the jail as an end-of-2024 deadline approaches to spend $40 million in federal funds to also build a mental health center as part of the project.

Brian Maughan, chairman of Oklahoma County’s Board of County Commissioners, discussed the county’s dilemma Tuesday after meeting in executive session to obtain a status update on where negotiations stand between the county and city.

The county has offered to buy 51 acres from Oklahoma City’s Airport Trust just south of the intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and Newcastle Road for $2.5 million.

While Oklahoma City’s director of airports and the chairman of the airport trust previously have said locating a jail there may not be in the city’s best interests, Maughan said Tuesday Oklahoma City remains a willing partner in helping the county find a location for the jail.

The airport site the county has offered to buy remains a possibility, provided the Federal Aviation Administration agrees to allow the city to pursue that deal and provided the city and county can agree on a price, Maughan said.

Plus, he said senior city staff members are working with Steve Mason, chairman of Oklahoma County’s Citizens Bond Advisory Oversight Board, the new jail’s architect and other county officials to evaluate other potential locations, including these still officially on the county’s list:

• 71 acres of land located at 1901 E Grand Boulevard and offered for sale to the county by Willowbrook Investments LLC and Garrett & Company Resources LLC for $5.14 million.
• 89 acres of land located at NE 10 and Interstate 35 and offered for sale for an undisclosed amount by Oklahoma’s Commissioners of the Land Office and Oklahoma City’s Water Trust.
• The existing jail site located at 201 N Shartel Ave.

More: Commissioner: New jail to be ‘night and day’ improvement from current jail’s problems

Other ideas are being discussed, Maughan said.

Typography and geology, access to utilities and potential impacts on nearby schools, neighborhoods and businesses all must be evaluated, Maughan said.

“Everybody’s trying. We appreciate the city’s efforts to work with us to resolve conflicts with the site we want and to help us evaluate other potential locations,” he said. “But this may take longer than we can spare.”

It is unlikely Oklahoma County would reopen a process it already went through that gave private land owners chances to offer properties to it for use as a jail location, Maughan said Tuesday.

“We just don’t have the time.”

Maughan said the process the county followed to select a new jail location proved to be more difficult than he anticipated.

“I am extremely worried we don’t have the luxury to wait, and we may have to go and explore other options.”

How time is pressuring Oklahoma County as it seeks new jail location

Oklahoma County voters authorized the sale of $260 million in bonds to build the new jail/mental health center in June 2022.

Beyond the end-of-2024 deadline to spend the federal dollars, ballot language voters approved to build the jail requires the county to spend 85% of funds raised through any given bond sale connected to the project within three years of when those bonds are sold

The county sold $45 million of those bonds to investors in March, the same month five private land owners offered potential locations to build the new facility.

In June, Oklahoma County accepted additional offers from governmental entities that gave it two potential locations near Will Rogers World Airport, among others that included locations near NE 10 and I-35, near NE 50 and Lincoln and near Lake Hefner Parkway’s interchange with the Kilpatrick Turnpike.

More: OKC’s airport is applying for $4.3 million in federal grant funding. Here’s why.

Then in August, another private landowner offered the county 77 acres of land near Britton Road and Kelley Avenue at no cost to the county.

But commissioners quickly abandoned that plan after various school administrators and community advocates objected.

The current county jail has experience problems since opening in 1991, and issues there have remained problematic since Oklahoma County created a jail trust to assume control of the operation in July 2020. 

The building’s condition, short staffing, guard misconduct, relatively poor medical care, lax mental health services and a thriving drug economy all have played roles in dozens of inmate deaths since the trust began operating the jail.