Muskogee County Jail Resumes Accepting All Inmates

The Muskogee County Jail is once again accepting all inmates, after they had to cut down on the number of people they took during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"During the COVID crisis, we were on ‘felony status only’ which means we would only take felonies or misdemeanors that were danger to society, like alcohol-related, DUI or domestic abuse," said Muskogee County Sheriff Andy Simmons. 

Simmons said those COVID-19 precautions were worth it because, they did not have any deaths from the virus, and only a few hospitalizations.

However, he said the past year has been especially hard on surrounding cities. When the jail did not accept city suspects, many cities had to go without a big chunk of that fine revenue.

"It was a really unfortunate situation. We opened up the first part of this month allowing municipalities to bring in their 'failure-to-pays,' their misdemeanors, which makes us happy because we like to be good partners with everybody that we have to work with," Simmons said.

Simmons said they are still prioritizing inmates charged with felonies. He said their next obstacle with the jail is limited space.

"Currently we are at 275, our max is 284, and we've got 107 federal inmates," Simmons said. "The biggest story I would say is we’re dealing with McGirt, plus keeping our local partners happy by being able to take their inmates. And at some point, we’re going to run out of space in here."