Two of the four new Tulsa Jail pods may not house inmates in the way pitched to voters in 2014 because of declining incarceration rates, but they still hold value to the Sheriff’s Office.
The David L. Moss facility, with an average daily jail population of about 1,500, is under capacity by a few hundred inmates, unlike years past when it was at or over its limit. But Sheriff’s Office leaders say the two pods in question could house a work-release program with the installation of an entrance and exit.
A more likely near-term option once the pods are finished in December may be for the Sheriff’s Office to shuffle existing inmates into them and perform cleaning and maintenance on the original 22 pods that are nearly two decades old.
“With the (jail) population as it is now, no, we don’t need them,” Sheriff Vic Regalado told the Tulsa World last week, adding that he will determine how best to utilize those two pods so they don’t sit unused.
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A substantial budgetary shortfall at the Tulsa Jail and other financial issues coming to light from Stanley Glanz’s long run as sheriff have generated discord between the Sheriff’s Office and county officials.
Regalado, who inherited the situation, said he intends to make the best of it.
He pointed to the Vision 20/20 tax, which will phase in an additional 160 Tulsa police officers in the next few years. The additional pod space may become necessary after all because it’s reasonable to expect more arrests, he said.
Chief Deputy Michelle Robinette, who has spearheaded the jail expansion, said those two pods will be used once they are ready in December. But in what fashion is undecided, she said.
“If nothing else occurs for other uses, then we’ll use those pods to empty our current pods to do renovations,” Robinette said.
When they were designed, Robinette said, the pods were drawn up with the idea that they could be used as work-release housing. Inmates would be allowed to leave during the day for work and return afterward. Judges are all in favor of it, Robinette said, but it has yet to become a reality.
“That would be a great thing,” Regalado said. “We don’t want people to lose their jobs because they’re in jail like in the past.”
The jail expansion’s other two pods will be dedicated solely to mental-health needs, with specialized design and care for mentally ill inmates. All four pods are set to be operational by Dec. 17, Robinette said.
A dedicated 0.25 percent sales tax covers some but not all of the existing jail’s operating revenue. A second, 0.041 percent tax passed in 2014 is supposed to cover the construction and operation of the four new pods. That tax generates about $1.7 million a year.
Voters approved the tax based on estimates that the pods would cost $9.5 million. Once actual design began, however, an error was discovered in those calculations, and the true cost to build the pods was found to be nearly $18 million.
The company responsible for the original estimate is not involved in the design or construction of the jail addition.
Through what is called “value engineering,” the cost was reduced to $15.9 million, including architects’ fees.
