Name: Protests force Oklahoma County Jail Trust to delay vote on COVID-19 relief funds
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Protests force Oklahoma County Jail Trust to delay vote on COVID-19 relief funds

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Kayla Branch Protesters shut down an Oklahoma County Jail Trust meeting Monday so they could express concerns over the potential for nearly all of the county’s federal COVID-19 relief funds to be spent on the county jail.Once the crowd of roughly 50 demonstrators realized the trust did not plan to allow public comment during the meeting, many yelled they would not leave until their frustrations had been heard.“You will not conduct business today unless people are allowed to speak,” one person said amid chants of “Let us speak.”In question is more than $36 million in funding from the CARES Act — the federal COVID-19 relief package approved by Congress this spring — that the county’s budget board recently recommended be given to the jail trust for maintenance issues and other upgrades.It was a request brought forward by Oklahoma County Commissioner Kevin Calvey that seemed to take several other elected officials by surprise last week since the county received about $47 million from the CARES Act in total.Protesters at Monday’s meeting were furious the county would allocate over 75% of its CARES dollars to the jail, which has a long history of neglect, mismanagement and terrible conditions.“You’re going to take COVID relief money to fix a problem you all have had for years?” One woman asked. “That is not how it works. I am sick and tired of you all asking for money. And now that we’ve got relief money, you take it and put it where you want it to go.”Other government entities have used CARES Act dollars for eviction mitigation, small business loans and personal protective equipment. Those services are what demonstrators hoped the money would be spent on.The county did recently approve $1.5 million for rental assistance, and a few million more dollars have been spent to buy cleaning equipment and transition county employees to working-from-home status.Up to this point, county officials have struggled to decide how they will spend the majority of their portion of CARES Act dollars.Demonstrators also made it clear that they weren’t happy with the level of improvements made since the jail trust took over management of the county jail July 1.During the meeting, Trust Chairwoman Tricia Everest announced a public forum would be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday and urged protesters to let the trust finish its other business.But since that forum would likely be held after the trust and the county commissioners officially approved the CARES Act allocation and, at that point, the trust still had not agreed to let demonstrators voice their frustrations, the crowd became furious.Chanting accompanied by signs and a megaphone drowned out trustees as they tried to carry on the meeting.Eventually, protesters were told they could address trustees, and Everest said any decision around CARES Act dollars would be held off “until we’ve heard from you.”Everest also agreed to spend a night in the jail, answering a demand from some protesters who said many of the jail trust members had no idea what it was like to be kept in the dilapidated building.“You can start making a change for us,” a demonstrator told Everest. “I’m counting on you.”The meeting lasted less than two hours, and demonstrators ultimately left the meeting room when it seemed that sheriff’s deputies might begin arrests. Toward the end of the meeting, at least 16 deputies were present.This was the third county meeting disrupted by large-scale demonstrations over the last week.Protesters say they had to disrupt the meetings because the county has not allowed public comment since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic but continues to vote on public business, particularly a recent resolution that would have limited free speech on county property.Ahead of the meeting, a small group of demonstrators met outside of the county courthouse to detail their personal experiences in the jail. They laid out issues like bed bugs, lack of water, moldy food and ridicule by jail staff as serious issues they or their loved ones had faced.Frustrations over the way the jail collaborates with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency were also discussed.“They forget that you’re innocent until proven ... guilty,” said Sincere Terry, a 19-year-old demonstrator.

Kayla Branch Protesters shut down an Oklahoma County Jail Trust meeting Monday so they could express concerns over the potential for nearly all of the county’s federal COVID-19 relief funds to be spent on the county jail.Once the crowd of roughly 50 demonstrators realized the trust did not plan to allow public comment during the meeting, many yelled they would not leave until their frustrations had been heard.“You will not conduct business today unless people are allowed to speak,” one person said amid chants of “Let us speak.”In question is more than $36 million in funding from the CARES...

Protests force Oklahoma County Jail Trust to delay vote on COVID-19 relief funds

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