By Vallery Brown
The Oklahoman
OKLAHOMA CITY — Many of Oklahoma’s jails are being inspected once a year instead of quarterly because of state budget cuts.
State Health Department officials say it’s not a problem, but a civil rights attorney and law enforcement officials disagree.
Don Garrison, director of the state Health Department Jail Inspection Division, said most of his employees were assigned duties in other areas within the Health Department to prevent layoffs.
Division inspectors look at the nearly 200 county and municipal jails, 10-day lockups and 12-hour holding facilities in the state.
Although they are not ideal, Garrison doesn’t think the cuts will negatively affect jails.
“Some jails don’t need the inspections as often and we know which ones those are,” Garrison said.
Sid Stell, Pottawattomie County jail director, said cuts affecting law enforcement and jails are often among the first when budgets are tightened.
But, he said, that’s usually the worst time for it.
“There’s a bigger impact here than people realize,” he said. “Cutting inspections now is a bad idea.”
Lily Krout, Midwest City jail manager, said often inspectors find issues before they become expensive problems.
Garrison said he and his four employees will focus less on the holding facilities and lockups since their prisoner populations aren’t as high.
Vernon Bolz, state Consumer Health Service chief, said it will also come down to prioritizing complaints. Serious health and safety complaints will be given top priority.
Garrison said most complaints come from prisoners and family members. Most are about medical care.
If problems are found, jails are given notice and must submit a plan of action to correct them.
A jail with repeated deficiencies can get fined or even closed.
This year, the Caddo County jail was the only one to receive an administrative order because of overcrowding. It is the next step for inspectors when deficiencies aren’t addressed.
Voters in August approved a county sales tax increase to pay for a new jail because of repeated problems and not enough space. The fines for the jail were costing taxpayers.
“Conditions in the old jails were bad,” Garrison said, adding that about 44 new jails have been built across the state during the last decade.
A proactive approach
Brandon Clabes, Midwest City police chief, said inspections shouldn’t be cut back. He said the inspectors help jails stay in compliance with state and federal law and often find things overlooked by jailers.
“If you don’t have someone reminding you of what they (the standards) are, how can you ensure you’re improving where you need to improve?” he said.
Stell, a 37-year law enforcement veteran, said the timing is all wrong to cut inspections.
As the economy worsens, crime rates tend to increase and so do jail populations, he said. Inspectors look at health and safety conditions, but they also look at staffing levels and training of employees.
“A lot of jails have to cut people, too. If they are doing fewer inspections those people being cut might not be replaced,” Stell said.
Norman attorney Michael Salem, a civil rights attorney with practice in litigating prisoners’ rights cases, said state cutbacks are coinciding with municipalities and counties tightening their budgets.
“I would expect there to be more of a need for inspections at a time like now,” he said. “More parties are cutting budgets and there could be a downward spiral.”
Salem said that although some might be quick to disregard poor conditions in jails as a problem only suffered by criminals and convicts, many people held in these facilities are awaiting trail and presumed innocent.
He said the state maintains higher standards than the federal government. If a prisoner does have a problem or there are issues at a jail, fewer inspections could mean fewer opportunities to get a problem resolved.
“It’s the mark of a civilized society how humanely they treat those in jail,” Salem said.
“Jail isn’t pleasant, but it should be humane.”
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