Jail-Needs, Comparisons and Statistics



On 09/06/2011 the Mustang Times Newspaper reported on progress regarding addressing our inadequate jail facility.  According to the Mustang Times article, we are now considering a 120 bed dormitory built onto the 72 bed jail facility as part of building a jail “one step at a time”.  The immediate plan also calls for a new laundry and kitchen area with a price tag “around 4.7 million dollars”.  As previously noted, I highly question whether a dormitory facility can address our current needs for a variety of reasons including: safety of the inmates and staff as well as the state jail standards requirement that we could only house minimum security inmates in the dormitory facility. 

On 09/21/2011 the Mustang Times Newspaper reported that it was announced in a county commissioners meeting that our current capacity was 99 people in a 72 bed jail as well as 70 inmates housed out of the county.  The newspaper somewhat cited the national average, that four jail beds are needed for every one thousand people of population.  Considering the results of our last census, Canadian County  should need approximately 462 beds at the time of the census. 

I have also long questioned how much we can afford  to pay out to other counties to house our inmates.  Currently with 70 inmates housed out of our county the cost just for incarceration is $511,000.00 per year.  This cost does not include the frequent transportation between facilities and the other incidental expenses.  Based on the most current plan coupled with spending nearly five million dollars, we would end up with 22 additional beds.  This however is a best case scenario assuming that we could find 120 minimum security inmates to house in the dormitory. 

The attached photos show research that I have conducted regarding the 77 county jails within the State of Oklahoma.  The photos show an alphabetical listing of the counties as well as the 2010 census population along with the amount of growth from 2000 to 2010.  I have also shown the population density and the crime rate per 1,000 people based on 2009 Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) information from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (state average crime rate per 1,000 people is 40.51).  Finally, I have shown each counties jail capacity as well as the amount of jail beds per 1,000 people per county. 

The numbers found on the right side of the table is Canadian County’s crime rate per 1,000 people in 2007 as well as 2008.  Also found in the right side of the table is project populations for three county jails under construction and the number of beds per 1,000 people.

Looking at the data, Canadian County is the fifth most populous county in the State and also ranks fifth in terms of population density per square mile.  The Canadian County Jail currently with 72 beds has .67 beds per 1,000 people while the State average (includes the three facilities under construction) is 4.32 beds per 1,000 inhabitants.  We will rank 44^th out 77 counties in terms of capacity holding the same position with Garvin County which only has a population of 27,576 people (2.61 beds per 1,000 people) (our census population was 115,541 people).  When comparing beds per 1,000 people, we currently rank LAST (#77) in the State of Oklahoma with this ratio.  If the dormitory plan is successful, we would have a capacity of 192 beds with 1.66 beds per 1,000 people (this would move us to 74th in the state when looking at beds per 1,000).  As far as the crime rate per 1,000 people, we rank twenty-fifth out of the 77 counties in the State of Oklahoma based on the 2009 UCR statistics. 

While I applaud our current elected leaders for attempting to be frugal in their spending, I hardly believe this current dormitory plan is the answer to our continued problems.  I do think the pay as you go has merits but our long term plan should be one in which we can expand a facility instead of addressing the needs of a nearly thirty year old inadequate facility. Throwing good money after bad does nothing to address problems with a facility which has nearly reached the end of usefulness and is ultimately landlocked for any future expansion.  I do believe there are solutions to this jail issue and it involves an adequate facility with the ability to expand as our population continues to dramatically increase. 

Considering the census data showing an approximate 32% increase in population in the past decade, I have no doubt we are continuing on this track when looking at the continued development and construction in this county.  Having this rapid continued growth in mind, we are considering numbers that are nearly two years old for this county when reviewing this data.

While talking to members of the public on occasion it has been brought up that El Reno, Mustang and Yukon Police Departments all have their own jails.  While this is true, these agencies do not house inmates long term especially for more serious crimes.  These agencies as well as others in the county all bring their prisoners to the county jail where people either bond from jail or await their day in court. 

For some of these people (especially the Murder cases) this can be quite a significant amount of time.  One particular individual, I arrested prior to the current Sheriff’s term in office, on June 19^th, 2008 regarding a charge on a Murder case, has remained in jail since his arrest.  Another individual (Durcho) was arrested in mid-January of 2009 and is still awaiting trial. I do not believe these types of cases will go away and with populations increasing crime usually increases as well which will do nothing but necessitate an adequate facility. 

Finally, although I have not seen anything publicly on this, I wonder how the dormitory and the current facility will be connected. I have previously mentioned that if new construction occurs, the current facility will have to meet current fire codes and not those that were in effect thirty years ago. If we are required to be compliant with the current fire code requirements then you can only imagine the increase in construction cost. At one point, they were going to have separate buildings, which would not necessitate the compliance with current building/fire codes but this would then impact the ability to quickly get into the dormitory building in the event of an emergency. Also under current Jail Standards, two personnel would be required to be in the facility which again increases the cost to the taxpayer.   Again, this does not look the most effective use of our taxdollars when we expect sound fiscal responsibility from our elected officials.

I have additional information regarding the status of the jail in the issues section of my webpage: www.beaty4sheriff.com if you would like to read more.   I do have an excel version of this data available, if needed, in the event you would like to do your own comparisons. 

The map listed below gives a somewhat graphical idea of the capacity throughout the State although some of the numbers are not current.  However, it is a pretty decent representation as to what the statewide situation is.