Claremore Daily Progress

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July 4, 2009

<b><font color= red>NEW - </b></font>Some prisoners spending 100+ days in jail

Krystal J. Carman

July 5, 2009 — Population at Rogers County Jail is still hovering at 200 or above, partly due to several inmates’ cases being continued leaving them in jail for more than 100 days.

According to Sheriff Scott Walton, 74 inmate currently housed in the county jail have been housed for more than 100 days.

Of those inmates, three have been housed in the jail for more than 500 days, three for more than 400 days and three for more than 200 days.

Court cases that have been repeatedly continued seem to be the hold up in Walton’s effort to release inmates to make room for “career criminals.”

“Sometimes a pass on a case can be four or five weeks out,” Walton said at the Rogers County Criminal Justice Authority meeting Thursday. “We would like that to move along quicker, but we can’t control the docket.”

According to Claremore Police Chief Mickey Perry, a Claremore criminal case has been continued 22 times and a preliminary hearing for one of the department’s five year old cases was held just this week.

Walton said he has been meeting with District Judge Dwayne Steidley concerning the jail population trying to come up with a solution to speed up the court process in an effort to release inmates.

He has also spoken with District Attorney Gene Haynes regarding the matter.

“The DA suggested we have a quarterly meeting to update everyone on what the problems are,” Walton said. “Right now, we’ve got warrants on some people that need to be arrested that we’ve set aside waiting on the day we have room. We need to get these career criminals off the streets and in the jail.”

Several of the inmates housed for more than 100 days are represented by court appointed attorneys.

The concern of the criminal justice authority is that the judges may not realize what is holding up some of these cases that are more than 100 days old.

“I would like to see the judges, Steidley and (Dynda) Post attend our meetings so we can discuss the problem and try to get the jail population down,” District 2 Commissioner Mike Helm said.

As of Thursday, 200 inmates were being housed in the jail with a monthly average of 208 inmates. That number includes 13 Department of Corrections inmates awaiting transport or court hearings.

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