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With serious issues, should the Oklahoma County jail trust dissolve? One group thinks so.
Bed bugs. Neglect. Beatings. Rapes. Overdoses. Deaths.
The list of horrific conditions and longstanding issues alleged by concerned citizens and former detainees at the Oklahoma County jail could seemingly go on forever. But as a group of reform-minded activists and grieving families continue their calls for a local trust's oversight of the jail to end, they fear their concerns might be falling on deaf ears.
The protest, organized by the People's Council for Justice Reform, was sparsely attended Saturday morning, with only two dozen people overall showing up in front of the Oklahoma County jail. But the outrage and frustration of the attendees was palpable, and their demands were clear.
'Our priorities are wrong in this county, and our priorities need to change,' People's Council organizer Mark Faulk said through a megaphone in front of the jail. 'They need to dissolve that jail trust and do it now, and put the sheriff back in control of (the jail).'
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The troubled facility at 201 N Shartel Ave — long plagued with issues of overcrowding, civil rights violations, and in-custody deaths — has been a frequent subject of criticism by the group. In recent years, oversight of the Oklahoma County Detention Center was taken over by a trust of civic leaders in the hope that conditions would improve.
That hasn't panned out, the People's Council argue, citing ongoing problems of inadequate staffing, frequent health inspection failures, and five dozen deaths since the jail trust took over in 2020.
Now, the group is advocating that the trustees vote to dissolve themselves in the coming weeks and relinquish control of the jail back to the sheriff's office. In past interviews with The Oklahoman, Sheriff Tommie Johnson III has admitted it's not something he would want to do but said, should that happen, he would fulfill his obligations as best he can.
'We would recommend that the sheriff maintain a citizen's advisory committee so that he could be held accountable, but he's an elected official, so at least we can vote him out' if constituents are dissatisfied, Faulk said.
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Several of the people at the protest Saturday were intimately familiar with the jail's issues. Some had spent time in the facility, while others counted their own loved ones among the death toll.
'The conditions in the county jail are deplorable,' local resident Milissa Lucas said. 'I don't know anyone currently in there, but my father was in prison for most of my childhood, so I have some strong feelings about the penal system.'
But Debra Stanton did know someone who spent time in the jail. Her own son, Derek Strother, was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead on Feb. 26, 2024. According to an autopsy report, Stanton's son died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl.
'I want answers, I want some closure, and not one person from the trust sat down with me to talk to me,' Stanton said. 'I'm not going away. I have grandchildren who live in this Oklahoma area, and I damn sure don't want them to end up in here ever. They need to make changes. These are people we're talking about.'
Volare Kirven, a retired hospice worker living in Atlanta, teared up as she recounted the death of her 26-year-old son Dina Latrell Kirven on April 8, 2023. He was found unresponsive inside a holding cell in the jail's booking area, dead of a fentanyl overdose, too, according to the medical examiner.
Latrell Kirven had been booked into the jail on an unauthorized use of motor vehicle complaint only hours before. His mother, who's filed a lawsuit against the county, says she no longer celebrates the Easter holiday due to the circumstances of his death.
'Just like anybody nowadays, he did have demons he was trying to fight, and we started doing family virtual counseling through Red Rock, but he was just with the wrong person that night,' Volare Kirven said. 'I didn't get a phone call from (the jail) — my phone call came from St. Anthony's. And I asked for answers, and I kept getting the runaround.'
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Volare Kirven, who grew up in Oklahoma City before eventually moving away, is very active civically in Atlanta, but she said she's worried by how little she believes the general public seems to be involved in criminal justice issues.
'More people need to get involved,' she said. 'They all show up for these Thunder games. They'll show up for these R&B festivals. You will show up to the park, you will show up to the car shows, but when it comes to saving lives and making different changes, you don't show up for that? That's not okay, and that has to change.'
Local voters in 2022 approved a $260 million bond to fund construction of a new jail, but county officials face numerous challenges in replacing the current facility. Aside from ongoing and contentious disputes about where exactly a new jail will be located, recent estimates also showed that the new project could actually cost closer to $677 million.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Activist group calls for dissolution of Oklahoma County jail trust
