Tulsa County And City Still In Dispute
A full day of mediation failed to produce a new city-county jail agreement between Tulsa County and its largest city. But retired Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Daniel Boudreau, who served as the mediator, said late Wednesday that 11 hours of negotiations yielded considerable progress. The Tulsa World reports:
The main sticking point has been whether the city should begin paying a direct fee to house its inmates in the Tulsa Jail and, if so, how much. The haggling began in March 2008, when the county first proposed that the city begin paying $54.13 per inmate per day to house its inmates in the jail. Under the former agreement, which expired Nov. 30, the city paid no direct fee to house as many as 116 municipal inmates a day in the jail. In return, the city provided certain assets and services to the county for a nominal fee or at no cost …
County officials have argued that a direct fee is necessary because of the rising cost of maintaining and refurbishing the jail. In addition, they say, the assets and services provided by the city under the old agreement have no current value to the Tulsa County Criminal Justice Authority, which oversees operation of the jail.