City And County Disagree On Jail Fees

By Lori Fullbright, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Tulsa County leaders and Tulsa's mayor are no closer to reaching an agreement about how to handle city inmates at the jail, even though the deadline to do so is next week.

Tulsa County Commissioners passed a resolution on Monday, requiring all cities in the county to pay $54.13 for every inmate brought to the county jail on city charges.  The City of Tulsa thinks that's too high and doesn't want to pay it.  The deadline for them to agree is next week.

The contract of the past 10 years said whenever a person in Tulsa was arrested on a city misdemeanor, they were brought to the Tulsa County Jail and there was no fee charged to Tulsa because it was agreed the city was donating property and services of equal value.

Now, instead of that trade, the authority that runs the jail wants money.

"The contract has expired and we want to go from a property exchange to a fee for service," said Tulsa County Commissioner John Smaligo.

The fee they want is $54.13 per city inmate per day.  That's the federal rate.  The state rate is around $30 a day.

Tulsa's mayor wants the first 35 inmates free and after that, is offering $18 a day.  The mayor says Tulsa city taxpayers are already paying for the jail, through a permanent sales tax and says the $54 fee is asking Tulsa taxpayers to pony up twice.

"The reason why prior administrations agreed to pass a city-county jail operation and a dedicated permanent tax was so we could have a city-county jail and work together and that doesn't seem possible right now," said Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor.

The county says no other city is kicking up a fuss about the fee, but they also have city jails where they take people arrested for city crimes.

None of this applies to people who face felony state charges.  The jail is mandated to take them, no matter where in the county they committed their crime.

The jail authority says it's only fair to pay for a service you're getting and booking and housing inmates is expensive.  Plus, they say if the other cities are paying, so should Tulsa.        

Tulsa says the fee would add up to $1.5 million and they need that money to hire more police officers.

Starting next week, anyone taking city inmates to the jail must pay the fee.  Tulsa says it's already looking for other places to take them. 

Even if they miss next week's deadline, if they do reach an agreement, they can amend the resolution that was passed on Monday.