By Traci Chapman/Staff Writer
published Jan. 15, 2009

Canadian County Jail is again “open for business,” accepting prisoners from cities throughout the county.

Sheriff Randall Edwards said Monday his office is preparing interlocal agreements with El Reno, Piedmont, Union City, Calumet, Mustang and Yukon, which will allow police departments in those cities to quickly move prisoners from their smaller jails to the county jail.

The move is a turnaround in policy implemented by former sheriff Lewis Hawkins. Last June after a bond proposal designed to fund a new jail failed, Hawkins refused to renew the annual agreements because the county jail had been cited for overcrowding.

“When you haven’t got any space, you can’t renew contracts bringing in more prisoners,” Hawkins said at that time.

Hawkins’ decision meant cities were forced to hold prisoners arrested on municipal charges until the district attorney filed state charges. That could mean a delay of several days or even a week, Edwards said — time smaller cities like Union City, Piedmont and Calumet did not have.

“Those smaller cities didn’t have any facilities to hold prisoners, so it was causing a huge problem for police departments, especially the small ones, because they simply did not have the facilities to hold prisoners,” Edwards said.

Piedmont and Union City have no local jail. Piedmont Police Chief Jerry Koester said his officers have had “difficulties” during the county jail moratorium; Union City Police Chief Eddie Dickerson said his department was forced to transport prisoners to Grady County.

“This is a huge relief for us,” Dickerson said. “With the cost of fuel, it was really hitting us hard to have to drive those prisoners to an out-of-county facility.”

While Hawkins’ decision not to accept prisoners posed the biggest impact for smaller communities, larger cities were also affected, El Reno Police Chief Ken Brown said.

“The new sheriff’s decision to open the county jail back up has been a huge help to us,” he said. “We have limited space, as does everyone, and this helps the flow of prisoners.”

Although formal agreements are not yet in place, Edwards said his office has already begun accepting prisoners from municipal police forces across the county.

“Everything was just brought to a screeching halt, and it was paralyzing the justice system across the county,” he said. “We knew we had to implement this immediately.”

Although Edwards is accepting municipal prisoners, he said that does not mean the issues plaguing the county jail have gone away. The county was again cited by state jail inspectors last week for overcrowding, Edwards said. The negative report is the third since the May 13 sales tax proposal was rejected by voters.

Edwards said his staff is working with state officials to bring the jail back down to its limit of 72 prisoners. Department of Corrections is scheduled to pick up 17 inmates who are awaiting transfer to state prisons “shortly,” he said, and “housekeeping” issues — water damage and leaks at the jail — are being addressed by his staff.

Edwards has also scheduled agents from the National Institute of Corrections to perform an evaluation of the existing jail, which he said will be used by the committee studying the county’s long-term law enforcement needs. NIC agents will begin their study Monday.

“As long as we are making progress, Don Garrison (state jail inspector) has assured me his office will work with us,” Edwards said.
“I believe we are moving forward and will be able to decide how to proceed by the end of this month.”