Oklahoma County committee backs selling remaining bonds to fund phased jail and behavioral care center build

Oklahoma County committee members voted on Aug. 18 to recommend selling the remaining bonds to fund a phased construction plan for a new adult detention center and behavioral care center, including an intake and booking center, support spaces and optional dormitory housing.

The recommendation to sell the outstanding bonds — staff discussed a planning estimate in the $215 million–$216 million range and a $175 million core construction package excluding an optional housing block called Area G — moves the phased plan to the county commissioners for a final funding decision.

Committee members heard a presentation from the project team and architects about a phased approach that opens a new intake, booking and support complex first, then follows with housing and additional public-space elements. Staff said the phased plan would allow the county to transfer laundry, kitchen and intake operations out of the existing downtown jail and to train staff on the new processes before the full campus is completed.

The architects described the first-phase (“red”) work as the support spaces: intake/booking, holding and transfer, kitchen, laundry and property storage, plus a central utility plant. That core work was…