Democratic Sheriff Candidate Wants To Know Where Tulsa Jail Money Goes

The Democrat in the race for Tulsa County sheriff showed up at a meeting of the jail trustees Monday to say he, and taxpayers, deserve to know where the money for the jail goes.

Tulsa County Sheriff Michelle Robinette fielded questions from the county Criminal Justice Authority, mostly about the money troubles plaguing the jail.

"It just seems to me not a good business model for the jail to be paying for officers to be trained to work in the sheriff's office," said Owasso mayor, Jeri Moberly.

One concern is that the sheriff's office has a career path that promotes a jail detention officer to deputy - sometimes within a year - despite the fact that jail dollars pay for their training.

Another concern is recurring - a state audit found almost $200,000 missing from the jail's inmate account, which holds inmates' money used to make phone calls or buy movies.

3/1/2016 Related Story: New Audit Shows Missing Funds, Poor Record Keeping At TCSO

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett said he'd like to audit all the jail accounts, and wonders why jail dollars go through a sheriff's office account before being purposed for the jail.

"It can't be directly deposited into the jail account. It's got to be deposited into the sheriff's cash fee account and then we will re-route it," Robinette said.

Democrat for sheriff, Rex Berry, also called for an audit.

"I want to know where the money is going," he said. "It's apparent there are way too many accounts and too much confusion on the accounts - how the money's transferred, who follows the money."

3/10/2016 Related Story: Tulsa County Sheriff Candidates Face Off At Forum

Berry is running against Republican Vic Regalado, who was not at the meeting.

The election for sheriff is April 5th.