Making the Case for Both of the Upcoming Tulsa County Jail-Tax Propositions

Prison overcrowding is, unfortunately, a well-known nationwide phenomenon. It's also a familiar and quite serious problem here in our own backyard, as it were, and thus many local residents feel that if we don't step up and take action, it's only going to worsen --- that is, it'll go from very bad to even worse. On Tuesday, April 1st, Tulsa County voters will be asked to consider two sales-tax initiatives. One asks voters to approve an expansion on the Tulsa Jail; this expansion would cost around $9.3 million and would cover the building and operating of four new "pods" to exist with the current jail. (Two of these pods would serve the jail's general population, one would be for juveniles, and the remaining one would be a mental-health facility.) The other initiative on next Tuesday's ballot asks voters to approve the construction and consolidation of a new --- and, in the opinion of our two guests today, greatly needed if not long overdue --- Tulsa County Juvenile Justice Center, which would cost about $45 million. Our guests on ST are Karen Keith, the Tulsa County Commissioner for District 2, and Judge Doris L. Fransein, Chief Judge of the Juvenile Division for Tulsa County.