On Friday, members of the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority voted unanimously to embark on a performance review process to assess the body’s long-term viability and effectiveness amid calls for it to disband and return day-to-day jail management duties to the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office.
Called the “jail trust” and mired in controversy since its origin, the body has come under fire from justice reform advocates and some of its members in the wake of 58 deaths at the Oklahoma County Jail since the trust took over operations five years ago. The new performance review process was initiated by current Chairman Steven Buck, whom trust members voted to continue serving as chairman Friday. A month ago, Buck said he was considering stepping down from the position, citing frustration with what he called the “status quo” at the facility.
During Friday morning’s meeting, Buck said it’s time for reflection. A former executive director of the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs who also worked at the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Buck is currently the president and CEO of Care Providers of Oklahoma, a trade association for long-term care facilities.
“We are five years old, and it’s time to look in the mirror,” Buck told fellow trust members. “I would be making a recommendation to do this even if we were performing at the highest level of efficiency. Self-evaluation is a good and important thing, and it is time that we do that. (During) my experience with the state, we had the opportunity to take part in what were called governmental efficiency audits, and we also had the opportunity to fall under the purview of an entity known as LOFT, the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency. We don’t have that in the county, and so I take it upon myself to have the responsibility to initiate a review to evaluate what is best for the citizens of this county moving forward.”
District 3 Oklahoma County Commissioner Myles Davidson, who also serves on the jail trust, agreed with Buck’s proposal.
“I think it’s a great idea to take an introspective look at the things we’ve accomplished and have not accomplished, and the things we should accomplish in the future,” Davidson said. “I think this is something we should be doing and that the Board of County Commissioners should join in on.”
Scobey intended to move to dissolve the jail trust
Trust member Derrick Scobey offered the most pointed comments of Friday’s meeting. Scobey said he had intended to introduce a motion to disband the jail trust altogether because of its ineffectiveness and high turnover among jail trust members and jail staff, as well as a chronic lack of funding from Oklahoma County.
The jail currently has a budget of about $36 million annually and is projected to face a nearly $6 million shortfall in the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. Since the trust’s inception in July 2020, about 30 people have served as members, Scobey said. The jail has also failed all 11 inspections from the State Department of Health since the trust took over operations, including the most recent inspection in May.
“In my time as a trust member, I have witnessed a cascade of systemic failures that have undermined public confidence, endangered lives and called into question our very ability to fulfill our fundamental mandate that we have of operating a safe, secure and humane detention facility,” Scobey told fellow trust members. “We have endured continued failed Health Department inspections, a pattern that really speaks to the deep-rooted operational deficiencies that persist despite repeated promises of reform and improvement. While not all occurring under my specific tenure, we must acknowledge the stark reality that close to 60 people, I believe 58, deaths have occurred since the inception of the jail trust. Each of these represents not a statistic, but a human life lost under our watch, and each demands our serious reflection and commitment to change. The facility has been plagued by multiple assaults among the detained population, creating an environment where safety cannot be guaranteed for those in our custody.”
Scobey told fellow trust members that funding remains at the heart of the jail’s problems, something former trust member Sue Ann Arnall also articulated in her February 2024 resignation letter.
“The problems are not merely operational, they are systemic, they are structural, and in many cases, rooted in chronic underfunding that has left us unable to maintain adequate staffing, proper facilities, or comprehensive programming that could address the root causes of institutional dysfunction,” Scobey said.
The jail’s current budget is about half of what is needed to operate the facility appropriately, Scobey said. His intention before Friday’s meeting was to call for an end to the trust. But Scobey said he did not want to create a sudden burden for Sheriff Tommie Johnson to take over operations of an underfunded jail.
“My intention, again, to make this motion was to disband the jail trust entirely after nearly three years of witnessing failure after failure, crisis after crisis, a reform effort after reform effort, and that failed to produce any lasting change,” he said.
But Scobey said he had changed his mind in recent days based on efforts that he said are underway to fix the jail’s funding issues. He did not elaborate on what specifically is being done or who is embarking on that effort. Since February, longtime law enforcement professional Paul Timmons has been serving as interim CEO of the jail.
“This new information that has caused me to reconsider my position involves a group of individuals who are currently working on innovative approaches to bring additional revenue into our jail operations,” he said. “These efforts represent a potential pathway to address our chronic underfunding shortfalls without placing an unnecessary burden on taxpayers or risking federal intervention. If successful, these revenue enhancements could provide the financial foundation necessary to implement reforms, staffing improvements, facility upgrades, and programming expansions that have been impossible under our current budget restraints.”
Lowe: ‘I agree with Pastor Scobey’
Members of an advocacy group called the People’s Council for Justice Reform have long criticized the trust’s administrative oversight of the jail. That group favors either a takeover by the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office or the U.S. Department of Justice. Member Mark Faulk said following Friday’s meeting that the decision to move forward with the trust is disappointing.
“They’re not doing a good job,” Faulk said. “Everyone, the court of public opinion, can evaluate this for them. Everybody knows out there that this is the worst, inhumane, and deadliest jail in America, and it’s not working.”
Faulk said he has concerns about the funding options Scobey discussed during Friday’s meeting.
“A couple of us met with Pastor Scobey a few days ago, and my biggest concern was that these people who say they will fund — not fund the jail — they will fund another ‘Fix the Jail’ campaign to try to, in my opinion, con voters into putting money into a broken system,” he said. “One of the reasons that he didn’t introduce the motion to dissolve the jail today was because people who are behind the scenes with the money dislike (Sheriff) Tommie Johnson so much that they don’t want the jail to go back to him. They don’t want him to have additional power in the county.”
District 1 Commissioner Jason Lowe is not a member of the jail trust, but he attended Friday’s meeting. He said all options should be considered when it comes to funding the jail.
“Yeah, I’m absolutely in agreement with Pastor Scobey,” Lowe said. “I commend him on his leadership, on bringing this issue to the forefront. Based on the fact that we are suffering from problems with the jail and the administration of the jail — yeah, I agree with him.”
Lowe said it may be necessary to create alternative funding methods, possibly including a sales tax to help fund operations for the current jail, and potentially construction of the new jail, should it ever be built. Voters approved a $260 million bond package to fund the jail in 2022, but the cost of building the new facility has risen dramatically since then. Currently, the county faces a $400 million shortfall for its construction. Lowe said, given the funding problems, handing the jail over to the sheriff wouldn’t be a desirable option.
“All of the above,” Lowe said when asked about a potential sales tax. “If we were to hand this over to the sheriff, we’d be back in the same position, because he’s not going to be in a position to be successful.”
