Okla. County Commissioners Set To Hold Meeting Monday On Possible Jail Site

Oklahoma County Commissioners are set to hold a meeting on Monday to decide whether to move forward with purchasing the proposed jail site near Del City.

However, the purchase plans may not include building a jail -- at least for now.

An amendment to those plans would move forward with purchasing the East Grand Boulevard land – but only for the construction of a behavioral health center.

The clock is ticking to spend $50 million in federal COVID-19 assistance funds on the mental health facility.

All while the future funding and construction plans for the jail portion remain on hold. 

Last month the Oklahoma City council voted 7-1 denying a special permit to build a jail on the property. However, Commissioners say nothing is standing in their way to begin work on the mental health facility.

"If we have the opportunity to go forward and build the mental health facility, obviously the 50 million is at stake. And I want to go forward," said Oklahoma County Commissioner, Brian Maughan.

"One of the reasons we have the mental health issues is that we don’t have the ability when they built the jail, they did not address the ability to have mental health patients inside the jail," said Oklahoma County Commissioner, Myles Davidson.

That meeting is set for Monday at 9 a.m.