Inspectors Don Garrison, Oklahoma Department of Health Jail Inspections Division director, and Alicia Dickeson, inspector and investigator, inspected the jail and made the report.
Robert Gude, jail administrator, said the inspection was a surprise visit by the state inspectors, and was the first inspection made since the jail was last inspected in 2003 before it was allowed to open in October of that year.
The inspectors also reported, "No problems from prisoners."
Gude credited employees with the good inspection. He explained five employees work per shift, three shifts per day.
"I have 20 very qualified people who have kept this together for the past year," he said. "I am very pleased with the results. We've been working for 18 months, and it has been a challenge to make sure all the inmates are taken care of on a daily basis."
District 3 County Commissioner Cleon Harrell who is chairman of the Sequoyah County Criminal Justice Authority, said he is pleased with the report. "If you can get a report with no citations or bad marks, that is something."
The report noted the jail has a capacity of 114 beds and the population on the day of the inspection was 91. The average daily population is between 80 and 90 prisoners, the report notes. The average population of the jail is 85 percent male and 10 percent female.
The state still has a pending fine leveled at the county due to conditions and overcrowding in the old jail, county commissioners recently noted. That fine, at $25,000, has not been paid or dismissed, Harrell noted last month.
And jail funding remains a problem. District 1 County Commissioner Bruce Tabor, who also serves on the jail trust, said at a commission meeting earlier this month that jail financing was on a fast spiral downward with no end in sight. He said the jail was in desperate need of money.
The jail is funded by one-third of a half-cent tax approved by county voters to build the jail and fund it. The jail, which eventually cost about $5 million, was over budget and other monies were borrowed to complete the building. When the two-thirds of the half cent pay off the jail's construction costs, that money will drop off the county sales tax. The one-third of a half cent will continue to operate the jail, but only brings in about $25,000 per month.
Tabor noted that the payroll alone for February was $31,891. The jail has a staff of 20 to meet state requirements that at least five jailers be on duty at a time.
Tabor predicted that the jail may have to close in the near future if money isn't found to keep it open.
