An inside look at the plan for a new Oklahoma County Jail

OKLAHOMA COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR) - Five years ago, Oklahoma County voters passed a bond issue overwhelmingly in favor of building a new county jail.

In the past five years, the county has narrowed the list of potential locations from 25 sites to one: SE 15th and Grand Boulevard, the 80-acre site of an abandoned apartment complex in southeast Oklahoma City, near the border with Del City.

The site has been a hot topic on the east side of the metro where many residents are opposed.

While the location may not be popular with neighbors, it is a fitting location for a modern criminal justice facility, according to the architecture firm which designed the proposed Oklahoma County Jail and adjacent Behavioral Care Center.

Built in 1991, the current Oklahoma County Jail is outdated, outmanned and out of compliance, per to the Department of Justice.

The federal government has already threatened to step in.

"This is not your normal building," said Jeff Bradley. "This building is occupied 24/ 7, 365 days a year, by people who don't want to be there."

Bradley is a Senior Principal Designer and the Director of Justice at global design architecture firm, HOK, the company which drew up the plans for a new Oklahoma County Jail.

Bradley confirms the project was designed based on the following community values determined by Oklahoma County Commissioners and others:

• No more warehousing of inmates
• Provide more dignified, humane housing to include appropriate spaces, family reunification, remote and onsite visitation, rehabilitative housing design, better acoustics, natural light, program spaces, exercise in every housing unit
• Mental Health Rehabilitative Design
• 24-hour Mental Health Diversion and Treatment Facility
• Improve mental health outcomes to reduce recidivism, jail population
• Reduce Oklahoma County healthcare costs, improve infirmary
• Minimize & reduce operational costs
• Improve safety of inmates, safety of staff, safety for the public
• Onsite criminal court services to reduce the number and type of detainees transported to and from Oklahoma County Courthouse
• Flexible sizing for the facility by potentially eliminating a pod or ½ Pod as needed

The plan is a spectacular improvement on an old crumbling facility. Schematic drawings show skylights throughout the facility.

The price tag is also sky-high. The project has grown to more than $600 million, which is almost $400 million more than the original 2019 budget.

"It's been a unique five years," Bradley said. "Covid completely changed the market, completely changed the availability of materials, both boring materials like concrete and steel, and then security, electronic controls that are more sophisticated. In one 18 month period across the country, from coast to coast (construction) prices rose 41%."

The new jail plan includes two courtrooms inside the detention center, laundry facilities in every housing unit and outdoor recreation areas for every pod.

There are 368 beds specifically for inmates experiencing a mental health crisis.

"You can treat people more humanely," Bradley said. "Then they behave more humanely."

The focus for HOK is rehabilitative design and efficiency.

Bradley said HOK is involved in the design of about 80 percent of the criminal justice construction projects in America right now.

"The majority of projects we're doing now are no longer downtown. Downtowns are grown out. There's no more space. The courthouses are historical. They don't want to tear them down."

In recent years, dozens of communities have moved their jail facilities out of downtown:

• Richmond, VA (10 miles)
• Douglas, GA (2 miles)
• Raleigh, NC (3 miles)
• Phoenix, AZ (4 miles)
• Dade City, FL (18 miles)
• Cleveland, OH (11 miles)
• Pueblo, CO (5 miles)
• Amarillo, TX (6 miles)
• San Marcos, TX (3 miles)
• Wichita Falls, TX (5 miles)
• Austin, TX (9 miles)
• Modesto, CA (1 mile)
• El Paso, TX (20 miles)
• Bell, TX (2 miles)
• Collin, TX (5 miles)
• Kaufman, TX (2 miles)
• Denton, TX (1 mile)
• Randall, TX (2 miles)
• Galveston, TX (3 miles)
• Indianapolis, IN (4 miles)
• Detroit, MI (2 miles)
• Santa Rosa, FL (9 miles)

In Nashville, Tennessee, they built a new jail and behavioral care center five years ago. Despite recommendations from experts, they built downtown and the project cost twice as much.

"In my town and in most towns, building outside of the city makes more operational sense and financial sense," said Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall. "I don't know who I'm upsetting in your town, but in my town and in most towns, building outside of the city makes more operational sense and financial sense. The only sense it doesn't make sometimes is political sense. I understand that, but operationally and financially there is no debate in my mind."

Davidson County was the first in the country to build a mental health facility right next door to their downtown Nashville jail.

With the addition of the behavioral care center, arrested people can be diverted to a mental health center, so they can be better served by a mental health team than incarceration.

"The goal was to decriminalize mental illness, get it out of the criminal justice system," said Sheriff Hall.

The return rate for inmates at the Davidson County Jail, so-called repeat offenders, in Nashville is about 70 percent. When mental illness is a factor, the rate jumps to 90 percent recidivism.

However, according to Davidson County records, the return rate for patients who are diverted to their Behavioral Care Center is just 22 percent.

"I'm very, very proud of it," said Sheriff Hall. "I hope to see some good things happen as we go forward."

The proposed location for the new Oklahoma County Jail, at SE 15th and Grand Boulevard, is still a deal-breaker for many in the east metro.

"There are no resources in that area," said Mid Del Public Schools School Board member, Gina Standridge. "There are no lawyers' offices, no courts, no bus stations, no public restrooms."

The mayor of Del City, Floyd Eason is adamantly opposed to the site location.

"They're forcing this upon our community," Eason said. "All of the infrastructure is downtown. These people are going to be released and not have a place to go. They're going to look for the path of least resistance, which will be right through Del City."

Some in Del City are supportive of a mental health center at SE 15th and Grand.

They don't want a jail. They don't want more blight in their backyard.

According to HOK, the proposal includes a total of 428 mental health housing beds at the jail and behavioral health center.

Architectural drawings show 368 beds for inmates who need mental health and rehabilitative services in jail. Over time, some of these inmates may be eligible for services at at the Behavioral Care Center.

The 368 detainee beds include 112 for inmates needing critical care for serious mental of physical health needs or suicide watch housing and 256 beds in a step-down unit. Those step-down unit beds are transitional housing for detainees with mental health issues designed to better prepare them for successful release.

The proposed 1800 bed jail facility would also include a 30-bed infirmary for inmates needing dialysis, dental services, wound treatment, exams, x-rays, ultrasound treatments, blood analysis, physical therapy, counseling, group therapy or bariatric dialysis.

"I am passionate about what I do," Bradley said. "I care about people. Our team cares about people. Rehabilitative design is just not designed to incarcerate and hold people. It's how to have a better end result for the people's lives that are coming out (of detainment). That starts right in the moment they come into intake."

The proposed Behavioral Care Center is designed to divert arrested people away from incarceration.

HOK designed a free-standing mental health hospital built adjacent to the county jail, to accommodate 60 patients. Those patients would be non-incarcerated individuals with serious mental health issues.  The facility would be built for voluntary stays ranging from three days to four weeks until release.

Additionally, Oklahoma County Commissioners have requested the Behavioral Care Center (BCC) be compliant with Medicaid standards, so the county will not shoulder the financial burden of indigent healthcare costs as the jail is doing now.

"The BCC is a tremendous stride in systemic justice reform," Bradley said.

Architects turned advocates believe a modern jail, designed with care and compassion and options for the mentally ill, will not be a blight. In fact, it may actually rejuvenate the Eastern Oklahoma County community in the same way the project aims to restore inmates and patients who are brought to the county jail against their will.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has put Oklahoma County on notice that our current county jail is a civil rights violation.

In the event Oklahoma County is unable or unwilling to build a new facility for jail inmates, the DOJ will step in, build a jail and send the county the bill.