All 62 inmates from the structure across Third Street from the new Grady County, Okla., Jail have been returned to the Department of Corrections. In total, 117 DOC inmates have been moved out of the Grady County Jail complex.
There are still 22 federal prisoners and few Avalon Corp. prisoners being held in Grady County. However, the only prisoners who will be held in Grady County after next Friday (Dec. 31) will be Grady County prisoners - and they will be housed in the old jail on the third floor of the Grady County Courthouse.
The Grady County Industrial Authority gathered for an emergency meeting to discuss the recommendation of the Grady County Criminal Justice Authority to close the jail Dec. 31.
No one has found the "miracle" which could keep the complex open and there is little hope that one will be found before the worst case scenario becomes reality.
The state had four types of prisoners in Grady County: 62 minimum security inmates; prisoners serving sentences in Grady County Jail in lieu of the Department of Corrections; a backlog of prisoners from Grady County awaiting placement in the DOC; and a backlog of Oklahoma County prisoners awaiting placement in the DOC.
The state has not paid for any of these categories of prisoners. The DOC says the prepayment covered all of their inmates. The county says the agreement was only for the 62 minimum security inmates.
The county would still have had operating cash flow from the other three categories of inmates plus the federal and some private prisoners and would have survived. With no cash flow from any DOC inmates, no money exists with which to operate.
On Wednesday, 39 Grady County Jail staffers were given pink slips. Only 17 employees will remain after Dec. 31, 2004. The only hope which remains for the county is some agreement with another agency to fill the beds vacated by the DOC inmates at a daily per capita rate high enough to allow the county to meet its operating costs.
To keep that possibility alive, officials plan to use money from his "x-fund" to keep the first floor of the new jail open. The first floor houses the 911 call center, the sheriff's office, the book-in area, and holding cells. He said there was enough money in that fund to allow the county to keep the first floor open for 30 days.