Commissioners, state legislators clash over jail

Despite the threat of state legislation designed to derail the proposal, Cleveland County commissioners will hold a special meeting today to purchase about 30 acres of "unimproved real estate" in Norman.

That land, commission chair George Skinner confirmed, is located at Franklin Road and 24th Avenue NW, near the Moore-Norman Technology Center and is the principal location currently being considered by commissioners for a new county detention facility.

The land proposal is the only issue on the agenda.

"Discussion, consideration and/or action upon a resolution authorizing the purchase of...approximately 28.92 acres...of unimproved real estate located in Norman," the agenda says, "...for the purchase price of $1.3 million and authorizing the execution by the Chairman or Vice-Chairman of the Board for a Real Estate Purchase Contract by and between the Board of County Commissioners of Cleveland County and Johnson Constrols, Inc., a Wisconsion Corporation as successor in interest to York International Corporation."

While Skinner would confirm that the site is still among three being cosidered for a new county detention facility, he said no decision about the jail's location has been made.

"We're not sure where, exactly, we'll build the jail," he said. "We are still looking at several locations," he said.

If successful, the county's action would appear to trump a state Senate bill -- currently working its way back through the legislature -- which would force commissioners to choose a different location for the jail.

Senate Bill 896, by Sen. Jonathan Nichols, R-Norman, and Randy Terrill, R-Moore, would prevent three counties -- Oklahoma, Tulsa and Cleveland -- from building a jail "within a two-mile radius of any elementary or secondary school or technology center site."

That bill, called the Jail-Free School Zone Act, would prevent commissioners from building a new jail facility on the Franklin Road site.

The measure also would force the commission to either expand the current facility or build a new jail within one mile of the old one -- in downtown Norman.

The bill recently passed the House of Representatives and is headed back the state Senate.

Skinner said the land's $1.3 million purchase price was "a heck of a deal" and would save county taxpayers millions compaired to building a jail facility in downtown.

"It would take about $2.5 million just to buy out five businesses," Skinner said last week. "And another $500,000 to tear down the old buildings."

The purchase could also prevent the state health department from taking action against the county.

Twice last year, state jail inspectors warned commissioners about the jail's inmate population. Last year Don Garrison, the state health department's jail inspector, gave the county 45 days to develop a plan to solve the overcrowding problem.

If the inmate population wasn't reduced, Garrison said, the county could be hit with fines of up to $10,000 per day for noncompliance with health and safety standards -- or state officials could ask the attorney general to close the facility.

Since then, the facility has continued to exceed inmate population limits and the state has continued its scrutiny. "We're watching closely," said Ted Evans, the state health department's chief of consumer health. "But if they (the county) hit a big roadblock, we'll probably step in and take some type of action."