Okla. County Commissioner Urges Support For Jail And Mental Health Facility Project

An Oklahoma County commissioner is sounding the alarm over the new jail site.

He's warning of all that will be lost if it fails to get support from Oklahoma City leaders.

From the start, the hope was to have a jail and a mental health facility, paid for in ARPA funds, right next to each other.

Oklahoma County Commissioner Brian Maughan says that only works with the East Grand Site- which is why it was selected and is waiting for the approval of city leaders.

“If we don’t have the $50 million we are just going to have to go back and see where to get the funds from, regrettable and unnecessary because this is been available and at your fingertips the whole time,“ said Maughan.

That $50 million in federal funding would go to a new mental facility right next to the jail.

So a medical professional can decide within walking distance of jail booking if a person needs more than a night behind bars.

Randy Tate is the CEO of Northcare, a certified behavioral health clinic in Oklahoma City

He’s seen works and what doesn’t in the world of mental health, “I worry that people won’t get into this facility it's not co-location. The barriers of getting people out of jail and transporting them across town to a new facility, that that’s expensive for law enforcement vendors. [Especially when people can just be walked over if it's next door.]

But next door goes out of the window, according to Maughan if the Grand site isn’t approved.

Because federal dollars have deadlines. This late in the game, Maughan says Grand is the only jail site that could include an on-location mental health facility.

That site goes before the Oklahoma City Planning Commission on April 11.