Oklahoma County jail tax vote is coming
In just three months, voters in Oklahoma County could be asked to approve a 10-year, half-cent sales tax to build a new jail.
The head of a committee formed to plan the adult-juvenile complex says the vote could be held as early as March. The price tag is roughly $350 million.
County Commissioner Ray Vaughn says if the plan is approved, officials would look for enough land to build a sprawling one-story complex. The current jail, opened in 1991, stands 13 stories and was the subject of a harsh critique by the U.S. Justice Department five years ago. Most of the problems outlined in that report have been addressed, but Sheriff John Whetsel says some deficiencies can only be fixed with a major remodeling or a new jail.
The present jail is a problem, has been for a long time. A March election doesn’t allow much time to convince the public to pay for a new one, but then, there’s probably no perfect time to make such a request.
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Citizens should defeat this oversized largesse. Most arrests are for failure to appear in traffic court. A more reasonable solution would be to allow the offenders who have not appeared in court to simply pay their fines in the jail lobby.
The origin of the public jail system was to confine dangerous people away from general population. The present system seems a tad bit closer to the British concept of debtor’s prisons.