11 inmates flagged for "issues" during jail count - OKC, OK - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com

After it was brought to a judge's attention that an inmate at the OK County Jail went 8 months without a court date, a judge ordered public defenders to do a face-to-face check on all inmates.

Article text:

The results from a face-to-face jail count at the Oklahoma County Jail have been released in a report to Honorable Judge Thomas Prince, where eleven inmates were flagged for "issues" during the count.

The count comes after a judge ordered it to be done after an inmate had been lost in the system for nearly eight months.

The Oklahoma Public Defenders Office did the county jail inventory count on March 9.

"I went with ten of my lawyers. We went on every floor and the Sheriff's Department provided two escorts for every one of my lawyer's, so, we had three people," said Robert Ravitz, public defender. "Every person was looked at, we had their pictures with information showing what floor they were on and who they were."

Ravitz said each inmate was asked if they had seen a judge, when they saw a judge, if they have a lawyer, when they last saw their lawyer and if they had any concerns or issues.
"We were concerned about three things. We were concerned the case had fallen through the cracks or that the person didn't have a court date and was in jail. We determined that several individuals had fallen through the cracks," said Ravitz.

"This is the most egregious case in my opinion," said Ravitz in a report to Honorable Prince about a juvenile inmate that never saw a judge. Ravitz said she was arrested on a warrant that was supposed to be recalled.

"This juvenile that we identified, she was arrested on the 26th of Feb. She hadn't seen a judge. She was right at the ten days which is the normal time (to be held in the jail). We kept her file and looked at it and we determined that when we looked it up on the court computer it showed that her case had been dismissed in December and the warrant recalled. Except, the warrant was never recalled," said Ravitz. "She was rearrested on that warrant and put in there (jail) and was never taken before a judge."

Ravitz said she was the only inmate that shouldn't have been in jail. He said two other inmates were in the jail for too long.

"The other two were legitimately arrested but they hadn't seen a judge in a timely matter.They weren't illegally in jail, they were in jail way too long," said Ravitz.

Ravitz said one inmate had been in the county jail since December and had never seen a judge on an extradition to California.

He said another inmate's warrant had been misplaced and the judge didn't know to arraign the person.

"When someone can knock a warrant over into a trash can and someone gets stuck in jail, that's a crazy system," said Ravitz.

Another inmate was in jail on a writ for the Department of Corrections.

"That was totally appropriate. But, while he was sitting here, he timed out of the Dept. of Corrections and no body notified the court of that. So, he never got a court date on that. That was taken care of," said Ravitz.

Ravitz blamed the current computer and paper delivery system the county jail currently has in place.

"We need a computer system that is new, said Ravitz. "We need one that talks to everybody."

During the count, Ravitz said they received paperwork from the Sheriff's Department that showed a picture of each inmate inside the jail. FOX 25 asked if they found anyone that they thought should be in the jail that wasn't.

"I know of at least one because I represented the person and I knew the person was not in the jail even though his picture showed he was in the jail," said Ravitz.

In the report to the Honorable Judge, Ravitz said he will be conducting inventories approximately every two months, calling the computer systems "totally archaic" and claiming it contributes to issues that exist in the criminal justice system.

Ravitz reminded that his client Charles Lemons was lost in the system for months before it was found he was not supposed to be there.

"He told us that he had told numerous deputies and their comment was, 'He was not on the list,'" said Ravitz. "He was very upset and wanted out as soon as possible."

Lemons was arrested on a probation violation and was never brought before a judge.

"He never got a court date," said Ravitz.

Ravitz said jail staff should take consistent complaints by inmates into consideration and do at least one check.
"I understand a lot of the deputies hear the same thing over and over again. We have a bunch of people that, even when we did the inventory, they told us they haven't been before judges. They had been before judges. They told us they didn't have lawyers. They do have lawyers. We know people have a tendency to stretch the truth when it involves their court dates but my argument is, let's check one time," said Ravitz.

Ravitz said the county jail is looking to improve its jail tracking system by updating their computer system. He said he's hoping to have it up and running by July of next year.

Type of publication: Television When was the article reported?: 03/20/2019 Publication: Fox 25 Article Url: [Web Link] Is Registration Required?: no How widespread was the article reported?: local News Category: Crime

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