By Nolan Clay
The Oklahoman
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — A judge is being asked to require Oklahoma County jail inmates to pay back $48.05 a day for the time they are locked up before conviction.
Inmates currently are being charged $44.51 per day, if convicted.
Sheriff John Whetsel is asking for the increase.
The request comes at a time some in state government and elsewhere are questioning whether convicts face too many costs for their crimes already. State Rep. Bobby Cleveland said last month “unfortunate folks ... are mired in this nonworking system” and find it impossible to keep up with installment payments on probation.
Other critics have suggested convicts may simply return to crime, stealing to pay off their court costs, fines and jail stay bills.
The request also comes at a time of growing public concern that inmates are being forced to stay in the Oklahoma County jail on nonviolent charges before trial because bail amounts are too high.
District Judge Ray C. Elliott has set the daily incarceration rate for the Oklahoma County jail every year for years. On Thursday, he put off approval of the latest request so he can get more information.
The judge specifically questioned why the sheriff wants a $48.05 daily rate when the jail accepts much less per day from the Oklahoma Corrections Department to hold inmates after their convictions.
The Corrections Department pays Oklahoma County and other counties $27 a day for inmates awaiting transfer to prison after conviction. The $27-a-day rate is set by state law.
The Corrections Department also pays Oklahoma County $32 a day to house up to 200 convicts in the jail, an arrangement that is supposed to reduce overcrowding in the state prison system. The $32-a-day rate for each inmate is set by contract.
“It strikes me as odd that the sheriff would be willing to accept less when there is an appellate decision that the Department of Corrections has to pay more,” the judge said Thursday. “It just seems silly.”
The judge was referring to a decision in April by the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals that found the $27-a-day rate unconstitutional “if and when a county expends more than the ... amount.” Despite that ruling, the law has not been changed.
Judge questions costs
The requested daily incarceration rate is based on a calculation of the total spent last fiscal year to operate the jail divided by the average daily jail population and divided by 365 days.
The judge was told the operating costs last fiscal year totaled $42.04 million and the average daily population during that time was 2,397 inmates.
The judge Thursday also questioned why the jail costs passed on to inmates included $6,536 spent on detention training and memberships and why the costs included vehicles driven home by jail administrators.
He also questioned whether the total costs included savings that came from having hearings three days a week in a courtroom in the jail basement. The judge last year established the jail court docket for preliminary hearing conferences for inmates represented by the public defender’s office.
Elliott said he has been told the change is saving the county $30,000 every month in personnel and gas costs.
The judge will consider the request further Feb. 18.
Of course, a number of inmates will never pay back any daily incarceration fees — or any court costs, fines and restitution. Some will be in prison for the rest of their lives or until they are too old to find jobs. Others will die or simply disappear.
The sheriff said Friday he would love it if the Corrections Department would pay more but he has to accept what he can get because he needs the money to operate the jail.
He said he already lost about $3.5 million a year in revenue because the Corrections Department a couple of years ago began a policy of picking up convicted inmates much sooner from jails. He said he had to cut personnel by 115 positions.
Whetsel said officials have talked to the Corrections Department about paying more than $32 a day for convicts held in the jail by contract. He called
the last director impossible and said the money wasn’t there anyway last year because of massive cuts
to the Corrections Department’s budget.
He said officials have talked to the Legislature for years about raising the rate from $27 a day for inmates awaiting transportation. “We ... haven’t got a raise — not a penny — in the last 10 years,” Whetsel said. “We don’t have lobbyists like private prisons do.”
The sheriff also defended including the expense of letting jail administrators take home a vehicle as part of the total jail operating costs. “Basically, we’re talking about just captains and a major who respond after hours and on weekends to every emergency at the jail,” he said.
Other lost revenue
The sheriff also confirmed Friday that the Oklahoma County jail lost more than $100,000 in income from the Corrections Department in November and December because of a new law.
Under the new law, a county must send a notice to the Corrections Department about an inmate’s prison sentence within three business days of the judgment. If a county misses that deadline, the Corrections Department does not have to pay a county anything for the time the convict is awaiting transfer in the county jail, until after the documentation comes in.
Often in Oklahoma County courtrooms, a judge will sentence several inmates a day. In November and December, deadlines were missed because the formal paperwork was not typed up or signed in time. Oklahoma County judges in mid-January came up with a handwritten notice to use on busy days to comply with the law.
“This was a law that we fought. The Legislature passed it anyway. ... We told the Legislature it is unconstitutional. We anticipate filing some kind of legal action to challenge the constitutionality of this law and to get our money paid back,” Whetsel said.
Copyright 2016 The Oklahoman