5 Potential Sites Offered To Build New Oklahoma County Jail

Oklahoma County is getting closer to finding a location to build a new county jail. 

The bids for private landowners closed on Friday with more options than commissioners were expecting.

Oklahoma County Commissioners said five private landowners came forward to voluntarily sell their property.

The five properties span the county in suburban, urban and rural areas and meet all requirements, including offering between 40 and 80 acres of land. 

The sale offers range from $1 million to almost $38 million dollars.

The commission has appointed a citizen oversight committee, which is a group of volunteers who will review and offer recommendations on whether these are good sites. 

Commissioner Brian Maughan ideally would like to see a location with more land for future growth.

“We could also look at maybe courtrooms out there eventually office space for bails bondsman sort of a one stop justice center eventually to make it more conducive so we could put less stress on the courthouse building downtown more centrally located for people, who it's more handy to go to if this jail is more centrally located,” Commissioner Brian Maughan, District 2, said.

Offers from government entities aren't due until June 2. 

The county hopes to have a location to consider by then and hopefully acquire the land by summer.