NORMAN COUNTY, OK - Aggressive arrest rates last week continued to pack the county jail above the maximum population mandated by the state health department.

In a weekly report to the County Board of Commissioners Monday, Jail Consultant Neil Vickers said an average of 181 prisoners a day were in the County Detention Center over the week of July 13-19. The tally equaled the average jail population for the previous week.

Vickers, retired former Norman Police Department assistant chief, has been on temporary assignment to the county to work with judges and the district attorney in relieving pressure on the jail. County Sheriff DeWayne Beggs has received two warnings about jail overcrowding this year. If the situation persists, the county risks stiff state fines and even the jail's being closed by the state.

On the weekend beginning Friday, July 14, law enforcement officers arrested 96 persons. That resulted in exceeding the jail limit for five days, Vickers said. The Norman police arrested 41, Moore police 21, Noble police 4, and the sheriff's office 30. The jail was packed with 181 prisoners on Friday, 183 Saturday, 193 Sunday, 187 Monday and 182 Tuesday before the tally dropped to 172 on Wednesday, the last day of the reporting period. The numbers are in addition to 20 Cleveland County prisoners a day kept in the Pottawatomie County Jail under a contract in effect since last summer.

Meanwhile, the commissioners are investigating the county's options in building a larger jail to handle a growing population. The commissioners are considering how large the new jail must be, its security features, where to locate it and how to finance it.

Vickers said during the seven-day period, the Sheriff's Department transported four jail inmates to state prisons and another 21 to other jails after their court appearances on misdemeanor charges. Six who were being held for court costs and fines were released under agreements made with the courts.

No jail inmates were put on electronic monitoring over the week. For the week earlier, 24 who otherwise would have been jailed were on electronic monitoring, pending the disposition of their cases, Vickers said.