Tulsa County is seeking $9-million in back payments from the Department of Corrections and a daily rate of $55 a day for holding state inmates. Recent court rulings say the state must pay the actual cost of keeping DOC inmates in county jails, and Tulsa Commission Chairman John Smaligo says the state’s been under paying for years. The Commission is asking the Sheriff and the Criminal Justice Authority to join in a lawsuit.
DOC’s been paying $27 a day per inmate, less than half what a study by the Tulsa Sheriff’s Office shows it costs to hold an inmate in the county jail.