Overcrowding At The Washington County Jail Causing Headaches

NewsOn6.com

BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA -- Washington County is the process of building a new county detention facility, but in the meantime, the current jail in the basement of the county courthouse in downtown Bartlesville is experiencing overcrowding problems.

The State Department of Health issued a Compliance Order to the county in 2008 that could have resulted in fines of $500 per day, per prisoner over the jail's capacity.

According to a Bartlesville newspaper, the Examiner-Enterprise, Washington County Undersheriff Steve Johnson says their jail's capacity is 78 inmates.

Currently, Johnson says the county has had to spread 120 to 130 inmates out between the current jail, the Bartlesville city jail and the Nowata County jail.

He tells the paper, the new jail should be up and running by July of next year.