Greg Williams steps down as Oklahoma County jail administrator

Oklahoma County jail administrator Greg Williams announced Monday he is resigning from his post.

Williams, 62, announced he is stepping down just four weeks after surviving a call for him to be fired by a newly appointed member to the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority.

As the trust met in executive session Monday, Williams said he had done his part.

"It is time for me to go," he told reporters in a hallway outside.

Williams said running the jail has been like running a relay race that has lasted more than 100 years and will continue into perpetuity.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic and the fentanyl crisis complicated matters when he took over the jail.

"I ran my leg, and I am ready to give my torch to the next person. It is really that simple. We worked very hard to make things better. I think we have done a very good job."

TIMELINE: Greg Williams' troubled tenure as Oklahoma County jail administrator

Not everyone agrees.

Williams was named administrator of the aging 13-story facility just more than three years ago amid hopes of improving its operations.

Instead, the jail has been plagued by more than 35 inmate deaths, a hostage situation, bed bug issues and failed health inspections since Williams and the trust took over jail operations from the Oklahoma County sheriff on July 1, 2020.

The jail's operations also have caught the attention of the state multicounty grand jury, where five of nine jail trustees testified in November, with a special prosecutor advising the grand jury attending trust meetings.

"We have been calling for the resignation or firing of Greg Williams for well over a year," said Mark Faulk, one of eight residents who addressed the trust Monday afternoon. "This is way past due, and it is only Step One. Had he been terminated a year ago, we could have saved a good majority of the 15 lives that have been lost since then."

"You have failed us, too," Faulk told trust members. Faulk said the trust hasn't done enough to drastically cut the jail's population.

"Spend money on mental health instead of criminalizing mental health issues. Spend money on transitional housing for the homeless instead of criminalizing homelessness. Spend money on drug and alcohol treatment instead of criminalizing people suffering" from those afflictions, he said.

Finally, he called for bail reform to help people who can't get out of jail because they are too poor to get out.

Williams provides updates on inmate, employee counts

Williams said the jail currently employs about 325, with an average November inmate count of about 1,685, compared to 1,762 the same month a year ago.

Williams said about 200 of the jail's inmates are being held on behalf of the Oklahoma State Department of Corrections.

He provided trust members with updates about work the jail has been doing with an outside contractor to come up with a life-monitoring system for inmates with medical issues and about changes his staff has made to provide detainees additional time outside of their cells on weekdays.

After the trust returned from its executive session, Chair Jim Couch said the organization has offered Williams a separation agreement that will pay him $40,000 now and $55,000 paid out over the remainder of the current fiscal year, which ends on June 30, 2023.

While Couch said he expects Williams' last day on the job will be Jan. 19, he also said the separation agreement calls for Williams to consult with the trust for at least 90 days as it looks for his successor. Williams also will be a consultant for whomever is hired as the next jail administrator.

Trust members voted unanimously to authorize the agreement.

The trust picked Williams in November 2019 to be the administrator of the county jail from the Corrections Department, where he had been serving as its deputy chief of operations after having worked there for 36 years.

He was making $132,000 annually as the jail's administrator.

“I personally want to thank Greg for his service. He took a hard job under very challenging circumstances, and he made demonstrable, meaningful improvements in conditions and outcomes at the jail,” Couch said. “Although he has decided to move on from his position, he deserves to take pride in the positive impact he made.”

Ben Brown, the trust's vice chairman, echoed Couch's statement, adding he was angered at how reporting about the jail's problems hastened Williams' departure, noting jail deaths are a problem across much of the nation.

"It was a hostile work environment when Greg came on," Brown said. "He didn't even have a place to work until the trust took over the jail, and wasn't even extended the courtesy of being allowed to tour the jail and discuss its current conditions and what needed to happen."

For his part, Williams said recent calls for him to resign had no bearing on his decision. He said now was the right time to leave.

"People have been wanting me gone before I got here. It was absolutely my choice," he said.

But the Rev. Derrick Scobey, who failed to get a second on his motion to fire Williams last month, encouraged his colleagues Monday to carefully consider their efforts moving forward.

Scobey noted Oklahoma County eventually could find itself in the same situation as another detention center in Mississippi, who lost control of its jail to federal officials earlier this year after local authorities failed to cure its problems.

That could cost Oklahoma County taxpayers additional money if that were to happen, he said.

"I am not trying to disrupt. I am trying to help us," Scobey said. "But I am under the humble opinion that if we don't get it right, and get it right quickly, then the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority should be dissolved."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma County jail administrator Greg Williams announces resignation