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Sheriff's Office Touts Progress of Tulsa County Jail Expansion

Matt Trotter
/
KWGS

The Tulsa County Jail expansion is on schedule for a December wrap-up.

Cells began arriving this week for two new wings containing 288 beds. One of those wings is specifically for inmates with mental health problems.

"It's kind of exciting to see forward progress on what we're doing and to see the completion as it's gone through its stages as to the housing units that are pretty important to Tulsa County and the sheriff's office as well to deal with the mental health issues that we have going on with our inmate population," said Chief Deputy Michelle Robinette.

Robinette said the proportion of inmates on psychotropic drugs was at 33 percent, but that’s grown as dedicated mental health facilities close.

The sales tax funding the jail expansion includes about $1.7 million in operations funding, and TCSO already has staff under the current medical provider contract.

"It's not like we're adding additional people," Robinette said. "We're just going to relocate them to a different area. Instead of being housed in medical, they're going to be housed in the mental health [unit]. That'll help."

The sheriff’s office is also ramping up a diversion program to keep the mentally ill out of jail, which now has 65 partners on board. That's more than triple the number of partners three months ago.

"We want to stop unnecessary detainment of individuals who have mental health issues that, [if it weren't] for that mental health [issue], wouldn't have committed a crime to start with," Robinette said. "So, I think we're getting there. I think we're making positive movement."

TCSO says the jail expansion will help them better serve the mentally ill, homeless and those suffering from addiction.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.