{"id":31469,"date":"2019-05-02T16:51:03","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T21:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=31469"},"modified":"2019-05-02T16:51:03","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T21:51:03","slug":"state-standards-leave-gaps-in-county-jail-inspections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2019\/05\/02\/state-standards-leave-gaps-in-county-jail-inspections\/","title":{"rendered":"State standards leave gaps in county jail inspections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/614850336&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p><p>An arrest in Roger Mills County ends with a drive into the sheriff department\u2019s garage and a short walk through the jail\u2019s heavy door. Sheriff Darren Atha and his deputies bring their prisoner inside, they search them, sit them down in a brown chair and start booking them.<\/p><p>The Roger Mills County Jail is roughly 20 miles from the state\u2019s western border. It\u2019s a small rural jail that holds up to 28 people and Sheriff Atha says it\u2019s a safe place to be.<\/p><p>\u201cWe just really don\u2019t operate a dungeon,\u201d Atha said.<\/p><p>Atha says the prisoners have warm water, heating and air conditioning, TV, phones \u2026 all the basics of a modern jail.<\/p><p>The jail has passed multiple state inspections over the years.<\/p><p>The Oklahoma Department of Health and the Fire Marshal inspect local jails every year. The most comprehensive inspections are done by the health department to ensure the health and safety standards ordered by lawmakers are being met.<\/p><p>Oklahoma law requires local jails to pass state inspections, but the inspections are only as effective as the rules they\u2019re based on.<\/p><p>Atha says the inspectors cover a lot of ground.<\/p><p>\u201cThey look at issues like where our knives in the kitchen are secured. They check our fire extinguishers and the expiration dates,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<h3>Inspectors get tunnel vision<\/h3><p>There are dozens of requirements for the inspections covering everything from security and prisoner supervision to hygiene, food, medical care and prisoners\u2019 mail.<\/p><p>However, health department inspectors have a kind of tunnel vision. The law requires them to look for violations of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ok.gov\/health\/Protective_Health\/City_and_County_Detention_Facility_Inspection_Service\/\">very specific standards<\/a>. So just because a jail passes inspection &#8212; doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s completely safe.<\/p><p>Terry Barnett is the former sheriff of Nowata County. She says the system is broken.<\/p><p>\u201cThey actually passed Nowata County in January on the inspection,\u201d Barnett said.<\/p><p>The jail made national headlines in March when\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2019\/04\/11\/sheriff-revolt-over-county-jail-conditions-shines-spotlight-on-low-funding\/\">Barnett and most of her staff resigned\u00a0<\/a>partially\u00a0 to protest unsafe conditions in the jail.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31470\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-31470\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/James-Joslin-1920x1423.jpg\" alt=\"James Joslin stands in an office space at the Oklahoma Department of Health\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1423\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/James-Joslin-1920x1423.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/James-Joslin-672x498.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/James-Joslin-768x569.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/James-Joslin-150x111.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/James-Joslin-300x222.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/James-Joslin-620x460.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/James-Joslin-1457x1080.jpg 1457w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Joslin says his inspectors have to follow the jail standards drafted by the health department and required by state law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>How did Nowata pass?<\/h3><p>Weeks earlier <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newson6.com\/story\/40049211\/nowata-county-jail-evacuated-due-to-carbon-monoxide\">four county employees got sick from a gas leak<\/a>, and the jail was evacuated. Barnett complained there was black mold in the jail, holes in the walls prisoners could use to hide contraband, loose wires and surfaces prisoners could use to hurt themselves and others.<\/p><p>\u201cI contacted the director concerning that inspection and was trying to get him to explain to me why he would pass that jail,\u201d Barnett said.<\/p><p>James Joslin is the assistant deputy commissioner for protective health services at the health department. He\u2019s the person Barnett called about Nowata\u2019s jail inspection.<\/p><p>\u201cThe immediate thing we discussed is what she had described as carbon monoxide in the facility,\u201d Joslin said.<\/p><p>Joslin says he told Barnett that his inspector didn\u2019t smell carbon monoxide in the jail. The county sheriff\u2019s office now says the leak was actually sewer gas.\u00a0Joslin also says his inspector didn\u2019t see mold in the jail.<\/p><p>\u201cIf there was mold and we missed it, that\u2019s possible,\u201d Joslin conceded. \u201cOr there was mold and it wasn\u2019t there at the time we were there and it\u2019s come back &#8212; which happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Follow the standards<\/h3><p>But Joslin says Barnett\u2019s other complaints about surfaces prisoners can hang themselves from, porcelain toilets prisoners can break to make weapons and decaying infrastructure are not covered by the health department\u2019s standards.<\/p><p>\u201cThose are issues of infrastructure and aging in these facilities &#8230; I don\u2019t have standards that say you can\u2019t have an old building,\u201d Joslin said.<\/p><p>The Nowata County jail is over 100 years old. Joslin says there a lot of very old jails in Oklahoma.<\/p><p>But Joslin admits the health department did miss one violation in January. All jails are required to pass a state Fire Marshal inspection.<\/p><p>Weeks before the health department looked at the Nowata County jail, the facility failed a Fire Marshal inspection because it didn\u2019t have a working sprinkler system or fire alarm.<\/p><p>\u201cSo the Fire Marshal identified a problem that we had not seen because that\u2019s not what we were looking at,\u201d Joslin said.<\/p><p>In hindsight, Joslin says he\u2019s working more closely with the state Fire Marshal to make sure the health department knows if a jail fails an inspection.<\/p><p>There are other problems. The health department only has one full time person and one part-time person to inspect all of the local jails in Oklahoma.<\/p><p>Then, Joslin says state law locks his office into the specific list of rules the health department created. If a problem is not covered by that list &#8212; he doesn\u2019t have the power to make jail staff fix it.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31472\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-31472\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/Roger-Mills-County-Sheriff-Darren-Atha-1920x1494.jpg\" alt=\"Sheriff Darren Atha stands behind his desk in front of a trophy case.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1494\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/Roger-Mills-County-Sheriff-Darren-Atha-1920x1494.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/Roger-Mills-County-Sheriff-Darren-Atha-672x523.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/Roger-Mills-County-Sheriff-Darren-Atha-768x598.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/Roger-Mills-County-Sheriff-Darren-Atha-150x117.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/Roger-Mills-County-Sheriff-Darren-Atha-300x234.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/Roger-Mills-County-Sheriff-Darren-Atha-620x483.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/05\/Roger-Mills-County-Sheriff-Darren-Atha-1388x1080.jpg 1388w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sheriff Darren Atha says more oversight helps his office operate at its best and avoid liability problems such as lawsuits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>More oversight is better<\/h3><p>Sheriff Darren Atha stands in front of a trophy case of awards, memorabilia and keepsakes in his Roger Mills County office.<\/p><p>He says the health department does a good job keeping his department in check, but he thinks more oversight would help.<\/p><p>\u201cI would be fine personally as Sheriff of Roger Mills County if the Oklahoma Department of Health made their standards more rigorous,\u201d Atha said.<\/p><p>The Roger Mills County Jail used to hold state prisoners for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, and that contract required the jail pass the corrections agency\u2019s inspections as well as the health department\u2019s.<\/p><p>\u201cObviously I think the Department of Corrections (inspection) was harder to pass,\u201d Atha said. \u201cI think they held us to a much higher standard \u2026 but holding people in a confined area is their business.\u201d<\/p><p>Roger Mills was one of more than 10 counties where the Department of Corrections cancelled contracts to save money. Atha says the additional inspections kept him and the previous sheriff on their toes &#8212; working hard to provide better conditions for their prisoners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Oklahoma Department of Health and the State Fire Marshal inspect local jails every year. But the inspections are only as effective as the rules they\u2019re based on. Just because a jail passes inspection &#8212; doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s completely safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":31471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1069,208,1074,1071,1045,1073,1070,1072],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31469"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31469"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31481,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31469\/revisions\/31481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}