Despite a year’s worth of conversations about options to end its overcrowding issues, the Comanche County Detention Center still has more detainees than beds, a problem exacerbated by reforms passed this year by the Oklahoma Legislature that reduced the jail’s legal capacity from 283 people to 240. However, contracts with other counties have allowed officials to keep the jail’s head count below capacity while repairs and improvements are made.
Lawmakers overhauled state law governing county jails this session, passing SB 595 as the Jail Standards Act. The modified rules and requirements took effect in late April, and they maintained the ability for Oklahoma State Department of Health inspectors to conduct unannounced inspections, much to the chagrin of Oklahoma County officials.
On Aug. 7, OSDH inspectors visited the Comanche County Jail and found a variety of violations in their inspection report, released Aug. 20. Inspectors noted a lack of safety checks, a delay in notifying the health department about a hospitalized inmate, and showers described as “dirty having black residue on the walls and ceilings, build up of soap scum, hair and trash.”
“Based on observation and interview, the facility failed to ensure inmates have a usable bed,” the reported stated, noting that several cells contained one or two more detainees than beds.
Jail administrator David Weber said he is working to comply with OSDH standards, and he said this month’s report showed marked improvement from the year prior.
“I was appointed jail administrator in July of 2024, the prior inspection was May of 2024, before my appointment,” Weber said. “This current inspection report for 2025 displays drastic improvements upon 2024’s inspection report. We will continue to work on improvements here in Comanche County.”
Last summer, problems with overcrowding at the Comanche County Jail spurred conversations about county liability, financial concerns and potential options to meet public safety needs.
With the May 2024 OSDH inspection identifying 375 people in custody, 46 detainees were found to be sleeping on floors, while more than 100 others were distributed to jails in counties around the state. Housing detainees at other county jails costs Comanche County a significant amount of money. Beyond paying other counties per-day rates between $45 and $60 per detainees, Comanche County also spends money on fuel and staff to transport those detainees.
Asked Aug. 26 if any detainees are still sleeping on floors of the Comanche County Jail, Weber said some are sleeping in mobile bunks.
“The individuals that did not have the mobile bunks during the (Aug. 7) inspection had just been moved to those units. That was corrected the same day,” Weber said.
Weber added that those sleeping on mobile bunks “are in the areas for protective custody and female inmates” because “we only have so much space to [dedicate] to those inmates.”
Jail staff members are also addressing the hygiene issues identified by OSDH, Weber said.
“I submitted a bid proposal to our county purchasing office to have companies come in and resurface the showers,” Weber said. “The shower walls are concrete and are difficult to clean. That’s how they were built. We are working on finding a different solution.”
Sight checks are also vital in a jail to ensure medical needs are attended to in a timely manner. OSDH inspectors noted multiple violations from August 2024, but no violations during this year’s visit.
“The (missing) sight checks were in reference to an incident that took place in August 2024,” Weber said. “September of 2024, I implemented a digital tracking system on sight checks called JailCore. It allows me and the other supervisors to track them in real time.”
The Aug. 7 inspection noted only 301 people in Comanche County’s custody, and Weber said the number was the same for Wednesday this week. That marks a 74-person decrease from one year prior, but Weber said 131 detainees are still being housed in other county jails. By number of Comanche County detainees and round-trip distance, those county facilities are:
- Okmulgee County Jail (71 people), 368 miles;
- Washita County Jail (52 people), 162 miles;
- Grady County Jail (six people), 94 miles; and
- Greer County Jail (two people), 160 miles.
Last summer, Comanche County was also paying Tillman County and Seminole County to detain about three dozen people, but those contracts have ended.
While the Comanche County Jail population is down and Weber’s team is working on improvements to his 2003 facility, questions about whether the county needs to pursue additional detention capacity remain.
As an alternative to building a new jail from the ground up, the Comanche County Board of Commissioners discussed the possibility of trying to contract for the use of the former Southwest Oklahoma Juvenile Center in Manitou, a small community 45 minutes southwest of Lawton in Tillman County. However, Tillman County and Comanche County commissioners squabbled over that idea, and it never materialized.
District 3 Comanche County Commissioner Josh Powers said Aug. 19 that use of the Manitou facility is “unlikely but not off the table” and that building a new facility is still an option.
District 2 Comanche County Commissioner Johnny Owens said building a new jail is probably what the county will have to do.
“Right now we’re working on just trying to get kind of a happy medium,” Owens said. “It’s costing the taxpayers and everybody so much money and we’re just trying to find the right solution. We just haven’t gotten there yet. But we’re working hard on it.”
Powers said holding detainees at other facilities allows the Comanche County Jail to stay at least 50 people below its new maximum capacity. On Wednesday, Weber said 168 people were in the Comanche County Jail, which now has a capacity of 240.
“Doing this allows us to move inmates around inside our facility for maintenance and cleaning,” Powers said. “[Weber] has done an outstanding job arranging these upgrades and implementing many positive changes.”
But Powers said the commissioners have not moved forward with a direct plan of action to address consistently having more than 100 detainees transported to and housed in other county jails.
FROM 2024
As Comanche County tries to end jail overcrowding, Manitou idea irks Tillman County by Faithanna Olsson
“We are still evaluating options. We have been making repairs and cleaning our current facility by keeping more inmates in out-of-county jails elsewhere in the state,” Powers said. “The low inmate numbers have helped us accomplish these much needed things. Once we make the rest of the upgrades in our current facility, we will switch focus back to a more long-term solution.”
Powers said commissioners are likely to hire a consultant to help them navigate that process.
Comanche County District Attorney Kyle Cabelka told NonDoc there have been talks with the City of Lawton about leasing or purchasing the city jail.
“It’s a relatively new jail, about maybe five, six years old,” Cabelka said. “They built it kind of, in my opinion, pretty large for what their typical population is. And so there would be space available there. It would not be enough to reduce completely all of the other county contracts, but it’s an option, too.”
Cabelka said he thinks the only long-term solution for Comanche County will be to build a bigger jail, but the commissioners have not committed to that idea.
The jail had a string of seven detainee deaths between August 2023 and March 2024. Cabelka said the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is still investigating the last homicide that occurred at the jail.
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Read OSDH’s Aug. 7 Comanche County Jail inspection report
