Comanche County Commissioners approve new agreement to house county prisoners

Comanche County has a fifth agreement in place to house overflow prisoners from the Comanche County Detention Center.

County commissioners, acting in their capacity as the Comanche County Facilities Authority, approved a year-long agreement with Greer County Sheriff’s Office, allowing that entity to accept up to 10 prisoners from Comanche County. It’s the same type of agreement that Comanche County has long had with Tillman County, and similar to those commissioners recently set into place with Grady, Okmulgee and Pottawatomie counties.

Jail Administrator Bill Hobbs said Greer County will be able to begin accepting prisoners from Comanche County as soon as that entity provides signed copies of the agreement the Comanche County Facilities Authority approved Monday. Commissioners have said they liked the idea of an agreement with Greer County because of its proximity.

Western District Commissioner Josh Powers has been pushing the agreements as a temporary solution to chronic overcrowding in the Comanche County facility. State health officials have said the jail can hold no more than 283 prisoners without violating state mandates. Hobbs has been able to bring those numbers in recent weeks down because of the agreements negotiated with detention centers/jails in other counties. Tillman County remains the largest and favored site for Comanche County prisoners because of its proximity to Comanche County, but Grady and Okmulgee counties also have been holding prisoners in recent weeks.

Commissioners said the detention center’s prisoner count topped 300 this week for the first time in weeks, a fact Hobbs attributes to the court docket that has begun in Comanche County District Court. He noted four prisoners were transferred back from Okmulgee County specifically for hearings.

“They’re here for court action,” Hobbs said.

The total detention center count Monday was 389 prisoners, with 303 housed in Comanche County, 70 in Tillman County, 10 in Okmulgee County and six in Grady County.

Powers said he hoped the new agreement with Greer County would help reduce Comanche County’s population, saying the county’s goal is to keep its population under the state-mandated level.

“We’ve been doing a good job not going over, so far,” Powers said, adding an anti-DUI push over the weekend added 12 prisoners to the detention center roster.