Oklahoma County jail officials begin process to restore, sanitize cells

By Dacoda McDowell-Wahpekeche

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    OKLAHOMA CITY (KOCO) — Cells within the Oklahoma County Detention Center were in the process of being sanitized and restored on Thursday during an effort to clean up the jail.

“We’re going to have to be here for another three to five years. It’s a long process, and these are deficiencies that continue to be cited by the Health Department,” Brandi Garner, the interim CEO of the Oklahoma County Detention, said.

Jail officials took action to make the space cleaner. But activists said the idea of cleaning the cells took far too long.

“Here we are, over three years after the jail trust took over, and they are just now saying we’re going to deep clean the cells and repaint,” Mark Faulk, with People’s Council Justice Reform, said. “It’s just another sign of their abject failure.”

The jail’s CEO said the number of detainees being at around 1,500 helps the process when the capacity is 2,800.

“The count allows us to shut down an entire pod so we can dedicate our efforts to making this a better living space,” Garner said.

The renovation of each cell takes about five days. Jail officials said they hope to have them all done by the end of the year.

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