Criminal justice authority asks Oklahoma County for $42.2 million as jail medical costs surge after vendor transition

The Criminal Justice Authority asked Oklahoma County's Budget Evaluation Team on April 16 to fund a $47.3 million FY25-26 budget, including a $42.2 million request from county general funds, citing a roughly $8.2 million increase from the current year largely driven by medical costs.

At a presentation led by the Authority (Speaker 4), staff said outside medical and pharmacy expenses are the principal drivers of the request. The presenters identified an estimated $1.56 million increase in the outside medical expense account and said the authority budgeted $840,000 for outside medical this year but is currently projecting substantially higher expenses based on recent months’ claims.

Committee members repeatedly pressed officials to explain why recent high monthly averages (about $200,000 per month over the past four months) were used to extrapolate a $2.4 million annual line item when the authority has since discovered billing errors. Speaker 5 said an outside vendor,…