The Bryan County Jail
How bad is the Bryan County Jail, in Durant, Oklahoma?
So bad that the FBI has investigated it, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has investigated it, the U.S. Marshal's Service has investigated it, the state Health Department has investigated and levied fines against it and the state of Oklahoma is considering ordering it closed.
In July, 2004 Bryan County Commissioners created the Bryan County Jail Authority and took control of the jail from the Sheriff. Since that time jail operations have become so bad that no one wants to be there, including the administrators, the jailers and certainly not the inmates, who escape pretty much when they feel like it.
2006 was a banner year for jail escapes in Bryan County, with at least 15 prisoners, including murderers, rapists and robbers fleeing the jail on a regular basis. 2005 wasn't a lot better, when at least 6 inmates escaped.
While the prisoners were leaving the jail in record numbers, so were the jailers and administrators. Several jailers were fired for a variety of failures including sleeping on the job while inmates escaped, being drunk and holding an 'open house' in which two females were smuggled into the jail, smuggling drugs into the jail, not paying attention as inmates waltzed out of the jail and one jailer was fired for having sex with an inmate.
Other jailers simply resigned in disgust over the low pay; jailers receive only $950 per-month while other county employees receive $1,940, lack of support, lack of security and arguably the lack of everything including leadership required to maintain and operate a jail.
Jail administrators don't far much better often resigning within only a few months of being hired and usually in the wake of yet another escape. And who can blame them in a county where it is estimated to require at least $350,000 to operate a single jail, the Bryan County Jail Authority operates two separate jails, the main jail and an auxiliary jail, both of which must be staffed.
For the 2005-2006 fiscal year Bryan County officials allocated only $150,000 to run the two jails. For the 2006-2007 fiscal year, they did slightly better, allocating $250,000. However the current estimated cost to operate the two jails is $57,000 per-month, for a total of $684,000 per-year.
2007 doesn't promise to be any better for the Bryan County Jail Trust Authority which asked County Commissioners for a $1 million dollar jail budget for the 2006-2007 fiscal year. They received only a quarter of that amount and the money is expected to be gone by the end of February.
One can only speculate on how many Bryan County prisoners will also be 'gone', having escaped by the end of February.
Commentary and Opinion
Sometimes it's best to simply give up and cut one's losses. Such is the case with the ill-fated, under-funded and under-staffed Bryan County Jail.
The state of Oklahoma should order the jail shut down, the Bryan County Jail Trust Authority dissolved and require Bryan County to contract with either another county's jail or a private prison to hold Bryan County prisoners.
It's the sane thing to do, as it's obvious that Bryan County lacks the ability to fund or operate a county jail and various law enforcement agencies around the state and nation are getting tired of chasing down escaped Bryan County inmates, one of which was located in Florida while another was located in Las Vegas.
