OK County hundreds of millions short of what's needed to build new jail

Oklahoma County doesn't have near the money it needs to build a new county jail, according to cost estimates revealed Tuesday.

While elected county commissioners told voters in 2022 a new jail could be built for $260 million, Tuesday's estimates put its cost today at anywhere from $610 million for a jail with 1,800 beds to $677 million for one with 2,248 beds.

Oklahoma County has about $220 million available out of the $260 million voters authorized to build a new jail after spending cash from bonds sold in early 2023 to hire jail designer HOK and to hire Flintco to build the project.

That means Oklahoma County would need an additional $460 million to build a jail with 2,248 beds. Even if it were to build an 1,800 bed version, it still would be short $390 million.

"The general consensus is we don't really have the funds to build even the minimum of what we need today," said Farooq Karim, a vice president at REES, HOK's local partner on the jail design project. Karim was speaking to members of Oklahoma County's Citizens Bond Oversight Advisory Board on Tuesday.

Board members were asked to review the project's schematic designs and also were updated about estimated costs that were developed jointly by the design team and Flintco.

More: Is the hunt for a new jail in Oklahoma County costing taxpayers money? Architects say it is

Flintco helped estimate the project's cost by gathering data on current pricing for furniture, fixtures, equipment and the labor needed to build large-scale construction projects.

The team estimated the current cost to build a new jail at $877 a square foot.

Karim told board members the proposal for a jail with 2,248 beds was developed through ongoing discussions between the design/build team, county officials and the current jail's staff.

County commissioner focuses on taking one step at a time

Brian Maughan, chairman of Oklahoma County's Board of County Commissioners, said Tuesday he was aware of the construction estimates the board received.

While he called the news frustrating, Maughan said his chief concern for now remains successfully securing land the county needs to build the most affordable, most economical jail (a single-story structure laid out over a large area) it possibly can.

"Where we get the jail located will impact what kind of design we can move forward with," said Maughan, noting that he's already been told by the design/construction team that trying to build downtown would add $90 million to the jail's total cost, on top of the current estimates.

"The reality has always been that we would probably have to build this thing in phases as we secured funding," Maughan said.

But that could mean the county will be stuck detaining people inside its current jail well into the future.

"Clearly, we will have to have another financing option. There are people who have different ideas about that and whether we can get the public's support, but if we can't do first things first, which is to establish a place to build it, its a moot point.

"So far, we haven't been able to get past that. Suffice it to say, it is extremely discouraging," Maughan said.

Population growth, changing laws input into jail needs

Karim told oversight board members the county's jail development team believes it needs a jail with 2,248 beds after evaluating Oklahoma County's current population, its projected growth and through comparing how that matches up with other, similar-sized counties in other parts of the nation.

The team determined Oklahoma County has an immediate need for about 1,900 beds, plus about another 300 that the jail's staff could use as flex space where detainees could be moved, when needed, to ensure both their and the staff's safety.

Current designs call for each pod inside the jail to contain four housing units, each holding between 56 and 58 detainees.

While the current population inside the county jail is less than its 1,400 bed capacity, there are no guarantees that won't change, Karim said.

"It is hard to know what we are going to be faced with in the future. Laws could change," said Karim, noting how legislators in Oklahoma currently are working on several laws that could increase needs for jail space.

"We wanted to give the county the ability to adjust and flow as things change over time. It is our best guess to plan for the future," he said.

The new jail's design also leaves enough room at 1901 E Grand, the county's preferred location, to add 600 more beds in the future, Karim said.

Plans call for starting a new jail's construction in the third quarter of 2025 and for it to last about three years, he said.

As for the project's cost, the design/build team evaluated not only today's costs for materials and manpower, but where they expected those will be during the three years of time it will take to build a new jail, said Josh Patterson, Flintco's jail project leader.

Oklahoma County Engineer Stacey Trumbo told board members that Oklahoma County isn't the only governmental entity facing large gaps on capital improvement projects.

Construction costs have soared for everyone the past three years. While Trumbo agreed that trimming the jail's number of beds would reduce the project's cost, he told them it would not be enough to matter.

"We still would be underwater," Trumbo said. "Reducing the bed count is going to help, but not going to get it done. We are going to have to find another funding resource, but we should squeeze it as much as we can."

Despite the budget bust, Trumbo asked board members to approve the schematic designs so that the design/construction teams could move into the next phase of their process.

"If you like the concept — the reasons they designed it the way they did — we would like a recommendation so that we can move on to the next phase."

Board members OK jail designs, but with added caveat

Oversight board members approved the jail designs Tuesday, but included a recommendation that Oklahoma County should pursue a smaller version with just 1,800 beds, initially.

"Obviously, we have busted our budget considerably," board member Xavier Neira said, asking what the design/construction team was doing to evaluate areas where costs could be trimmed.

"We need to find some opportunities for savings and do that fairly fast," he said.

Neira advocated sending along the design to commissioners and leave it up to them about where to go from there.

But colleague Sandino Thompson said adopting schematic designs with an assumption the jail would have 1,800 beds made more sense to him.

"This (a jail with a bed capacity of 1,800) is where we need to be, and then, if the winds are blowing in the right way, we feel like there are other opportunities for additional revenues, you can build as much of a jail as feasible," Thompson said. "I would prefer to work our way up from that.

"The quality of construction, what it looks like will be important," Thompson said. "I don't want us fighting beds versus daylight, or beds versus ease of amenities for staff."

Thompson was supported by board members Michael Mize, Joanne Davis and board Chairman Steve Mason, who said he worried overbuilding a new jail would just encourage the county to fill it, similarly to the way he would fill a two car garage with junk over time if he had that opportunity.

"I have a real problem approving a design for a building that we know we can't afford," Mason said.

While news related to the jail's costs for the jail were bad, Trumbo told board members the design team believes Oklahoma County has enough money to build the planned adjacent behavioral health center, estimating its cost at about $47 million. The county has $49 million allocated for that project, using federal dollars provided through the American Rescue Plan Act.

Flintco's Patterson said work on that project could start and end before Oklahoma County loses the right to use the federal funds set aside for that project.

Board members also endorsed schematic designs for that piece of the total project, recommending to county commissioners that they should pursue its construction separately from the larger job.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma County doesn't have the money needed to build a new jail