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To: mishedlo who wrote (19668)	12/28/2004 1:06:20 AM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

117 inmates moved out of Grady County Jail [OK municipal bond blowup details] By KENT BUSH Staff Writer The Minimum Security Facility is empty. All 62 inmates from the structure across Third Street from the new Grady County 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. “This has basically been the exact opposite of what we expected,” said Sheriff Kieran McMullen. “We were operating fine with no money to pay the bond payment. Now we have made the bond payment and we don’t have the money to operate.” [LMAO - Mish] That change came when the state announced that they would “prepay” for a year’s housing of 62 inmates in the Minimum Security Facility. That agreement could not be made in writing because the legislature was not in session and the Governor’s Office, State Senate and State House of Representatives would have had to vote on it. Since the legislature was not in session, that was impossible. Instead the state and county made an agreement. If the agreement had remained in effect, the county could have met its operating costs until the legislature could reconvene and approve a long-term plan which would include finishing the fourth floor of the jail - which is currently an unused shell - and put it to use as a drug and alcohol treatment center. 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. Simple math seems to support Grady County’s argument. At $31 a day, 62 inmates would cost the DOC more than $700,000. The state paid $645,000 up front. That amount, plus money the county already had dedicated to the bond payment would allow the county to make its bond payment Nov. 1 and not go into default with MBIA - the company that insured the bond issued to pay for the new jail and has now imposed a moratorium on insuring other bonds in the State of Oklahoma. 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. Progress is being made to return all revenue producing inmates to the agency that has custody of them. By Friday, about 115 Grady County inmates will be stacked into the old jail and the county will be back to square one. 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, McMullen is going 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. That would only leave about $130,000 in the x-fund - which was going toward the bond payment, but is now used for inmate care. That money would have to pay for inmate care until the new fiscal year begins on July 1, 2005. With no solution on the horizon, the now-vacant Minimum Security Facility is being winterized and prepared for closure. The second and third floors of the jail will soon follow suit. The Grady County Industrial Authority will continue to seek answers, but the long-dreaded day of closure of the new jail now seems imminent.

To: mishedlo who wrote (19668)	12/28/2004 3:19:50 AM
From: loantech	Respond to of 116555

Hopefully not Oregon!