As plans for Oklahoma County’s new jail remain a riddle that will ultimately be answered by taxpayers’ willingness to stomach a first-of-its-kind sales tax, operators of the current detention center are attempting to make its population more manageable by reducing the backlog of post-sentence inmates awaiting transfer to state prisons.
The process of getting convicted persons from county custody to the state system has long been an issue at Oklahoma County’s troubled facility, with past management and members of the jail trust wanting the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to move faster and pay more when transfers linger. At the same time, DOC officials say they can only do so much because of bottlenecks on their end.
Some evidence exists that things are trending in the right direction, thanks in part to a new Oklahoma County agreement with the DOC and the purchase of three vans that can be used to transfer detainees. The Arnall Family Foundation donated a fourth van.
Population totals pose important metrics for any jail, but Oklahoma County’s facility has remained chronically understaffed, which creates a breeding ground for potential problems that can lead to injuries or deaths of detainees or employees.
Delayed transfers have created backups in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties in recent years, as well as for rural jails scattered throughout the state. That’s why jail administrators want detainees already sentenced by district courts to be on their way to prison facilities. The Tulsa County Jail sued the DOC in 2013, claiming it was not processing transfers promptly and creating overcrowding conditions.
After years of arguments, legislative changes and other litigation over how much the state must pay counties to hold adjudicated inmates awaiting transfer, the DOC sued the state auditor in 2020 over her analysis that it cost Tulsa County $63.42 per day to house a detainee. At that time, the legislatively-set rate stood at $27 per day. Today, it’s $32, according to a DOC spokeswoman.
Beginning in mid-November, the Oklahoma County Jail ramped up its transfers to DOC prisons. The county detention center began November with about 195 detainees who were awaiting transfer after being sentenced, but that total fell to 148 as of Dec. 8. In December 2024, the Oklahoma County Jail contained about 240 detainees awaiting DOC transfer.
As of Monday, the Oklahoma County Jail’s population is 1,452. That’s about 220 fewer people than the 2025 peak Aug. 31, when the jail housed 1,773 detainees.
In 2023, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in the DOC’s 2020 lawsuit that the state agency must reimburse jails for the “actual daily cost” of housing its detainees. However, the complex opinion also required new math: a calculation of “directly attributable” costs for the DOC inmates awaiting transfer, and many stakeholders felt the situation became even more complicated, not less.
Meanwhile, the pace of transfers remains slow. A review by Oklahoma Watch in August found that DOC’s prisoner transfer backlog increased 74 percent over four years beginning in 2021. At the time the story was published in August, the number of inmates statewide waiting for transfer to DOC facilities was 1,355.
The number has declined since then, though only marginally. As of Nov. 13, there were 1,290 people in county jails who were eligible for transfer, with 760 ready to move, according to Kay Thompson, chief of public relations for DOC.
New agreement could boost transfers
On Oct. 30, the Oklahoma County Jail’s administrator, Tim Kimrey, told the county jail trust that a new arrangement with DOC will mean up to 36 detainees can be transferred per week to DOC.
“As far as our DOC folks, we did meet with the director of the population for the Lexington Receiving and Reception Center, and starting Nov. 2, we will be able to transfer 36 per week from the jail to Lexington,” Kimrey said. “Our goal is to reduce the sentenced population and get it under 100 by the start of next year. We’re pretty excited about this.”
Males sentenced in Oklahoma are taken to the state’s assessment and reception center in Lexington. Women are taken to Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud. From there, they are sent to other prison facilities around the state depending on the nature of their crimes.
The state currently has about 22,000 inmates in DOC facilities. But while counties are required to provide the transportation for sentenced inmates to reach the state reception facilities, county jails must wait to receive a DOC order for each person being transferred.
With Oklahoma County ready to transfer more inmates under its new agreement with DOC, the jail has recently acquired four new vans to facilitate those transitions.
“That will significantly enhance our fleet and transportation operations,” Kimrey told the trust.
Thompson, the DOC public relations chief, said the department tries to keep the population of those sentenced and awaiting transfer under 25 percent of a county jail’s total population.
“We have asked Oklahoma County to bring us about 30 inmates a week, and I think they have had some struggles in the past, which I can’t really speak to, where they couldn’t meet that quota. We have reserved 30 for them, but if they can’t bring them, then there is a backup,” Thompson said. “It begins to stack up. So we try not to get over 20 or 25 percent of their capacity. That’s with all county jails.”
DOC inmates awaiting transfer currently make up about 10 percent of the Oklahoma County Jail’s population. With limited beds at both Lexington and Mabel Bassett, backups happen, Thompson said.
“We try to move people in and out as quickly as possible because we want people to exit, but we want them to be rehabilitated at the same time,” Thompson said. “At the same time, we want to make sure that they get their programs and their training and anything else they need to exit in a timely fashion. We don’t want them long term, and when they leave, we don’t ever want to see them again.”
The daily rate paid to county facilities poses another issue with which jail administrators must grapple. In many cases, they say $32 does not cover the true cost of housing detainees ready for transfer.
Oklahoma County Jail spokesman Mark Opgrande said intake costs for people booked into the jail run about $192 for the first day they are incarcerated because of added processing expenses.
“When you’re booked, that’s when you get all of your stuff, and there are pictures and going through the scanner,” Opgrande said. “You’re seeing maybe 10 or 15 different staff as you go down the line.”
Opgrande said the true cost of incarcerating detainees at the jail after the initial processing is around $66 a day. That total includes food and staff expenses, as well as utility costs.
Thompson said the rate paid is set by statute and that it falls in line with what the DOC should be required to cover.
“Tulsa County has sued us because they said that it costs more than that, but we don’t pay for fixed costs,” Thompson said. “We don’t pay for your utilities and building maintenance. Those jails are going to operate whether our inmates are there or not. So we pay for a variable cost — what it costs to feed them, and there is medical on top of that.”
Thompson said, “on top of that,” the DOC also pays for medical costs incurred by inmates in custody of county jails, starting with their sentencing date.
“That’s a big deal,” Thompson said. “We are not leaving them on the hook for those expenses.”
Thompson said the DOC’s backlog was exacerbated beginning in 2020 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic when the state’s prison population was essentially locked down and no one moved in the system. That period lasted for more than a year, which she said added another layer of complexity to an already challenging process.
Hope for the future
Thompson said the DOC collaborates with all 77 counties, which presents a range of unique challenges. The goal is to keep costs as low as possible for everyone involved.
“We want to ensure we are good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars and sheriff offices’ time,” she said. “It costs both (parties) to transport to our reception centers, therefore we want them to make as few trips as possible while keeping our population in their jails under the 20 percent thresholds.”
Jim Holman, the new chairman of the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority (also known as the jail trust), said he has been encouraged by recent conversations with DOC officials on the transfer issue.
“I’m more than hopeful,” Holman said. “They’re giving us the largest quote and a 90-day commitment on both sides. Every 90 days, we have another video conference to be sure that if we have any issues that need to be addressed or typically have been ignored in the past, they won’t be.”
Steve Buck, who passed the jail trust’s chairmanship to Holman in November, said reducing the Oklahoma County Detention Center’s population needs momentum on all fronts.
“Every single individual in that facility that has the opportunity to be served elsewhere, it’s important for them to move to their final destination,” Buck said.
