For OK County's '3 Scrooges,' no jail will ever be too big

(Editor's note: this commentary first appeared in The Oklahoman, and can be seen here.)

A telling moment in Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol" has two men asking the miserly Scrooge to help the “poor and destitute.” One of the men, pen in hand, says: “Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.” Scrooge coldly replies, “Are there no prisons?” The man, putting down his pen, says, “Plenty of prisons.”

Written 180 years ago, the scene could have taken place recently in Oklahoma County, where commissioners, our very own three Scrooges, are pushing to extract another $600 million from taxpayers for a larger jail to house the poor and destitute, along with people struggling with mental illness and addiction.

To justify the cost, commissioners warn that failing to fund a massive new jail will trigger federal intervention and double the cost of a new jail — an argument identical to the one used in 2022, when voters narrowly approved a $260 million bond supposedly sufficient (along with an additional $40 million from other sources) to build the entire facility. In fact, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber-financed ad campaign’s slogan was an unambiguous “New jail, no new taxes.”

Now, the new jail, no new taxes budget has more than tripled, with commissioners calling for — you guessed it — massive new taxes, blaming rising construction costs and specifically citing the cost of steel and concrete. But the math doesn’t support them: Nonresidential construction is up about 44% since 2022, which would put the project around $432 million — far below today’s $835 million estimate. Steel prices have fallen about 10% since 2022, and concrete has risen modestly, from $144 to $166 per cubic yard.

Our group, the People’s Council for Justice Reform, warned from the beginning that this would become “a Billion Dollar Bigger Jail.” We have long advocated for a housing-first strategy to alleviate homelessness, expanded community mental-health and addiction treatment, and bail reform for low-level, nonviolent offenses. Those measures, properly implemented, would drastically reduce the jail population, allowing the county to build a smaller, more manageable and more affordable jail.

Instead, commissioners remain committed to an unsustainable cycle of ever-increasing incarceration. As former Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel said before the current jail opened in 1991, “If you build it, I’ll fill it.” Until we choose to support people in need rather than punish those in poverty or suffering from mental illness or addiction, no jail will ever be too big to fill.

Mark Faulk is a lifelong social/political activist, investigative writer and filmmaker and is the former chair of the Oklahoma County Democratic Party. He is a candidate for the District 1 County Commission seat now held by Jason Lowe.