solitude
08-14-2008, 02:50 AM
After this story from today's Oklahoman, I have included a link to an old Daily Oklahoman article from 1988 about the jail design.
Read it and weep.
Oklahoma County Sheriff says problems cited in report tied to faulty facility
August 14, 2008
By John Estus
Staff Writer
In Jack Herron's 20 years working in federal prisons, not once did he step foot in a detention building designed as poorly as the Oklahoma County jail, he said.
"In my career I've never seen a design like this,” Herron said Wednesday while standing in a jail dayroom surrounded by 50 jail cells. "It is very poor.”
Sheriff John Whetsel, who hired Herron as the county's new jail administrator last week, had a more pointed assessment: "It's the lamest jail design I've ever seen.”
Herron, a former Federal Bureau of Prisons warden, was hired in the wake of a Justice Department report released last week that slammed the jail as an overcrowded, violent place with an inability to manage its inmates.
Whetsel continued his campaign to explain why the jail faces so many problems Wednesday by giving officials from local governments a tour of the 13-story building in downtown Oklahoma City.
Officials from Oklahoma City, Del City and Midwest City were among about two dozen county officials and media members who toured the jail. Throughout the tour, Whetsel showed how the building's poor design has contributed to problems for jail staff and inmates.
One step into the D pod on the sixth floor provided a loud example of the stress detention officers face daily.
Inmates pounded on cell doors, cursing and yelling at the men. Many screamed: "I want my sandwich! I'm hungry! Get me food now!” It was shortly after 3 p.m.
Herron said the inmates were screaming for sandwiches because of an apparent problem getting the food from the kitchen in the basement to the sixth floor cells. Another inmate yelled: "Moses said free my people, so free me!”
Problems built-in
One of the most critical portions of the Justice Department report ripped the jail for its lack of direct supervision of inmates. Lack of supervision often leads to violence, the report said.
Whetsel said much of that problem can be blamed on the building's design.
For example, in the jail's dayroom areas, detention officers monitor inmates from an elevated office encased in glass windows.
The glass is considered a barrier between the inmate and the jailer, which means the supervision is classified as indirect, Whetsel said. Without the glass, the jailers and inmates can communicate and even get to know each other, which often leads to better behavior, Herron said.
Still, simply removing the glass wouldn't immediately solve the supervision problem because of the myriad blind spots in each pod, Herron said.
The glass is one of the many things that baffles Whetsel about the building, which was designed by a company that had never designed a jail before.
Whetsel just shrugged his shoulders when asked why the county hired the company in the first place. Whetsel wasn't sheriff when the jail's designer was hired.
The Justice Department report did not address the jail's design.
Seeing it themselves
Oklahoma City Manager Jim Couch, Assistant City Manager M.T. Berry — a former Oklahoma City police chief — and Mayor Mick Cornett's chief of staff, David Holt, were among the Oklahoma City delegation on the tour.
Like most cities in the county, Oklahoma City has no city jail and pays the sheriff's department to house its inmates at the county jail. Couch sent a letter to Whetsel last week that cited the city's inmate contract with the county and asked the county to work with the Justice Department to solve the issues cited in the report.
Whetsel showed officials many of the things the jail has already done because of the Justice Department's visit, ranging from new paint that makes the jail feel more soothing to padded mats on the floor of the receiving area, where most fights occur.
Whetsel said he's glad Couch and the other officials came on the tour.
"It's important that they see for themselves what we deal with in this building,” Whetsel said.
------
IMO, it's time to raze the building and do it right.
For those of you interested, I am making available an article from the Daily Oklahoman on March 20, 1988 about the wonderful new design of the jail. It was designed by HTB and RGDC. Interesting article.
http://drop.io/okctalk (http://drop.io/okctalk)
Just click on the picture of the article and then click "download". It's high resolution so you'll want to download it and read it locally - unless you have real good eyesight.
LINK TO OKLAHOMAN VIDEO WITH SHERIFF WHETSEL (http://www.newsok.tv/?titleID=1729330369)
Forum Tech Question: Does anyone know if there's a way to use the Oklahoman video embed code, so the video can appear here at OKCTalk?
Read it and weep.
Oklahoma County Sheriff says problems cited in report tied to faulty facility
August 14, 2008
By John Estus
Staff Writer
In Jack Herron's 20 years working in federal prisons, not once did he step foot in a detention building designed as poorly as the Oklahoma County jail, he said.
"In my career I've never seen a design like this,” Herron said Wednesday while standing in a jail dayroom surrounded by 50 jail cells. "It is very poor.”
Sheriff John Whetsel, who hired Herron as the county's new jail administrator last week, had a more pointed assessment: "It's the lamest jail design I've ever seen.”
Herron, a former Federal Bureau of Prisons warden, was hired in the wake of a Justice Department report released last week that slammed the jail as an overcrowded, violent place with an inability to manage its inmates.
Whetsel continued his campaign to explain why the jail faces so many problems Wednesday by giving officials from local governments a tour of the 13-story building in downtown Oklahoma City.
Officials from Oklahoma City, Del City and Midwest City were among about two dozen county officials and media members who toured the jail. Throughout the tour, Whetsel showed how the building's poor design has contributed to problems for jail staff and inmates.
One step into the D pod on the sixth floor provided a loud example of the stress detention officers face daily.
Inmates pounded on cell doors, cursing and yelling at the men. Many screamed: "I want my sandwich! I'm hungry! Get me food now!” It was shortly after 3 p.m.
Herron said the inmates were screaming for sandwiches because of an apparent problem getting the food from the kitchen in the basement to the sixth floor cells. Another inmate yelled: "Moses said free my people, so free me!”
Problems built-in
One of the most critical portions of the Justice Department report ripped the jail for its lack of direct supervision of inmates. Lack of supervision often leads to violence, the report said.
Whetsel said much of that problem can be blamed on the building's design.
For example, in the jail's dayroom areas, detention officers monitor inmates from an elevated office encased in glass windows.
The glass is considered a barrier between the inmate and the jailer, which means the supervision is classified as indirect, Whetsel said. Without the glass, the jailers and inmates can communicate and even get to know each other, which often leads to better behavior, Herron said.
Still, simply removing the glass wouldn't immediately solve the supervision problem because of the myriad blind spots in each pod, Herron said.
The glass is one of the many things that baffles Whetsel about the building, which was designed by a company that had never designed a jail before.
Whetsel just shrugged his shoulders when asked why the county hired the company in the first place. Whetsel wasn't sheriff when the jail's designer was hired.
The Justice Department report did not address the jail's design.
Seeing it themselves
Oklahoma City Manager Jim Couch, Assistant City Manager M.T. Berry — a former Oklahoma City police chief — and Mayor Mick Cornett's chief of staff, David Holt, were among the Oklahoma City delegation on the tour.
Like most cities in the county, Oklahoma City has no city jail and pays the sheriff's department to house its inmates at the county jail. Couch sent a letter to Whetsel last week that cited the city's inmate contract with the county and asked the county to work with the Justice Department to solve the issues cited in the report.
Whetsel showed officials many of the things the jail has already done because of the Justice Department's visit, ranging from new paint that makes the jail feel more soothing to padded mats on the floor of the receiving area, where most fights occur.
Whetsel said he's glad Couch and the other officials came on the tour.
"It's important that they see for themselves what we deal with in this building,” Whetsel said.
------
IMO, it's time to raze the building and do it right.
For those of you interested, I am making available an article from the Daily Oklahoman on March 20, 1988 about the wonderful new design of the jail. It was designed by HTB and RGDC. Interesting article.
http://drop.io/okctalk (http://drop.io/okctalk)
Just click on the picture of the article and then click "download". It's high resolution so you'll want to download it and read it locally - unless you have real good eyesight.
LINK TO OKLAHOMAN VIDEO WITH SHERIFF WHETSEL (http://www.newsok.tv/?titleID=1729330369)
Forum Tech Question: Does anyone know if there's a way to use the Oklahoman video embed code, so the video can appear here at OKCTalk?