AP-Oklahoma
Oklahoma County a natn'l leader

Original Article

Oklahoma County a national leader in jail bookings

By Associated Press
4/2/2008 9:57 AM

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Bookings at the Oklahoma County jail rose 53 percent from 2001 to 2006, the fastest growth rate in the nation among major county jails, according to a new Justice Policy Institute study.

The study released Tuesday also showed that Oklahoma County locks people up at a higher rate than all but eight counties in the United States despite chronic overcrowding at its jail.

The study found that in the past two decades, the number of people sent to county jails nationwide has nearly doubled.

This has put a financial strain on the counties, which are forced to commit bigger portions of their budgets to deal with bulging jail populations.

Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel said the 2,850-capacity jail's inmate population has become more manageable in the past year, thanks to a court ruling that forced the removal of several hundred state Department of Corrections inmates from county cells and new District Attorney David Prater's work to speed up prosecutions.

The jail's average daily inmate count is down from about 2,900 a year ago to about 2,400 in recent weeks, Whetsel said.

Maj. John Waldenville, who leads the sheriff's administration bureau, said 78 percent of the department's annual operating budget is spent on the jail. Last fiscal year, the jail's projected operating cost was about $27 million.

Of the 38,296 bookings at the Oklahoma County jail last year, two-thirds were for drug charges, according to booking records.

Nationally, only a quarter of people jailed in 2002 faced drug charges, according to the study. In 1983 about 9 percent of jail inmates faced drug charges.
By Associated Press