Oklahoma County Jail to stay afloat, despite "urgent warning" about budget last week

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Monday, Oklahoma County Jail leaders and the Budget Evaluation Team discussed the "urgent warning" issued by the detention center last week, regarding their budget.

In the warning, the detention center mentioned serious financial issues that would threaten jail operations by the end of this month.

Monday's meeting lasted two hours and was a back-and-forth between budget team members and Oklahoma County Jail leaders trying to get an understanding of the financial emergency.

However, News 4 eventually learned the risk wasn't as soon as the jail had initially mentioned.

Cody Compton, Chair of the Oklahoma County Budget Evaluation Team, said he and his board members were initially concerned.

"We had an idea that the sky was falling from that press release," Compton said.

"The press release tended to have a little bit more of a definitive timeline on it that they were going to run out of money at the end of this current month," he added.

Kok-Cheng See, Finance Manager for the Oklahoma County Detention Center, said they do have enough money to operate at the moment.

In the meeting, Board Member Joe Blough said, "This situation today that we're all here for is as Cody said, not out of the ordinary but for you all saying you're going to be broke on July 31."

See responded, saying, "No we're not going to be broke."

See said the warning was instead a projection for a shortfall later this year if circumstances remain the same.

"We would not have enough money to pay our monthly bills based on the monthly revenue that we receive," See said.

You may be wondering why the jail is low on money. One of the biggest expenses discussed is in-house and off-site medical costs.

One worker in the meeting said, "They're [inmates] sicker, I don't know how else to explain it."

Compton said when the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office ran the jail, there were contracts with other entities to manage health care, whether it be on-site or off-site medical care.

"Now bringing it in-house in October of this last year, I think there potentially may have been some growing pains," Compton added.

In order to address future financial problems, budget board members suggested jail leaders conduct an audit on all expenses.

If the detention center is fully staffed at the end of this fiscal year and their revenue projections remain the same, See said they could be in a $5M hole.