Tulsa County’s embattled juvenile detention center remains on probationary status.
Family Center for Juvenile Justice Director David Parker reported Monday the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs extended the center’s tentative status through the end of the year.
The center was placed on probation in July before county commissioners took over the facility amid noncompliance, abuse allegations and a Homeland Security search. The probationary status is upheld as a federal lawsuit accusing detention center employees and county officials of the abuse or neglect of detained youth remains in litigation.
Parker reports the Office of Juvenile Affairs only had one deficiency in its latest review of the center.
"That has to do with paperwork that should be in files that, from January, I just can’t come up with. I would have loved to have found them from emptying the file cabinets and all the boxes that are there, but they’re just nonexistent,” he said, adding that he has revamped the center’s filing system in response to the citation.
Public Radio Tulsa has requested OJA’s assessment of the center.
The center was out of compliance with OJA in 2023. According to the lawsuit, concerns included “youth being kept in their rooms/isolated, education concerns, and problems handling grievances and their resolutions.”
An amended copy of the lawsuit filed in August listed up to 27 youth whose civil rights were allegedly violated.
County commissioners took over the center in July after Tulsa County’s juvenile judge Kevin Gray relinquished his authority over the facility. District juvenile judges commonly oversee detention centers in Oklahoma.
The commissioners are named as defendants but have repeatedly cited Gray’s oversight prior to July when asked about the lawsuit.
Parker declined to comment on the lawsuit, but said the commissioners “have invested in turning this thing around.”
