Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett wants the county’s criminal justice authority to get bids on operating the jail on a regular basis.
Bartlett said it’s not necessarily to oust the sheriff’s department, but to ensure their costs are competitive.
"If we get proposals back that are pretty well equal with what we're spending now, then I think we can pat everybody on the back and say, 'Hooray, thank you very much, you're doing a great job,'" Bartlett said.
The sheriff’s department operates the jail now and running at a loss. Bartlett said he’s wanted an efficiency study of jail operations for some time.
"A request for proposals would essentially accomplish the same thing," Bartlett said. "Might be a much longer process, but we'll get a good idea, hopefully, if a majority of the authority agrees with it."
The criminal justice authority is considering the idea, though it may take a couple months for the trustees to bring it to a vote.
The proposal presents the possibility of a private company running the jail for a profit. Bartlett said the authority would need the ability to fire anyone doing a poor job.
"I'm not saying it has to be, you know, we have one month and they have to leave. I think that would be unfair," Bartlett said. "But we have to have a process in place to where if we feel that things are not being done properly ... then we have to have the ability to terminate a contract."
Bartlett said prolonged jail fee negotiations between the city and county helped push him toward this proposal.
