Criminal Justice Advisory Council learns about new 988 line

Last Updated on September 16, 2022, 10:19 AM | Published: September 16, 2022

OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — The Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Advisory Council (CJAC) held its monthly meeting Thursday for the first time since the recent vote approving a bond to build a new jail facility.

The group heard reports from:

• Commissioner of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS) Carrie Slatton-Hodges about the recently launched state-wide mental health crisis line, 988,
• Brief reports from its subcommittees for Facilities, Pretrial – Case Processing, and Data,
• A report about plans for the County Commissioners to appoint a New Jail Oversight Committee,
• The fourth Annual Report of the organization by Executive Director Timothy Tardibono.

Crisis Line

ODMHSAS Commissioner Carrie Slatten-Hodges delivered a presentation on the new mental health crisis hotline 988, which went live at the beginning of July.

988 is a nation-wide initiative to offer a safe alternative to calling police for mental health crises. Coming from the popular 1-800-273-TALK suicide crisis hotline, people in distress or with a loved one or neighbor in crisis can call 988 and, in Oklahoma City, a crisis team can be deployed that includes social workers and clinicians who are expert in de-escalation and mental illness.

Deploying such a team rather than police frees the police to do their actual jobs, while also protecting the person in crisis from a dangerous outcome such as our community saw in the shooting death of Benny Edwards at the hands of the Oklahoma City Police Department.

“He died scared” says niece of man shot and killed by OKC police

The hotline has only been active since July in Oklahoma, but already 500 deployments of crisis teams have taken place.

988 also serves as an outlet for persons struggling with suicidal thoughts or deep depression or anxiety to simply have somebody to talk to. The number also works via text in order to serve a wider demographic of people in the community.

Pretrial/Case Processing

Bob Ravitz, head of the Oklahoma County Public Defenders office, gave a brief report on progress to implement a court-ordered out-patient mental health treatment program.

In this model, low level offenders who meet criteria may be sentenced to out-patient mental health treatment with consequences to leverage participation. Attendance in the out-patient appointments will be logged and reported by the appropriate agency.

Tulsa County has a very successful program that Ravitz claimed many in leadership in Oklahoma County have long envied.

County Commissioners

Two items that will be before the County Commissioners next week were discussed during CJAC’s meeting on Thursday.

First is that the Commissioners will start the process of establishing and empaneling a New Jail Oversight Committee. This group, as included in the recent bond vote language, will be charged with overseeing the planning, site acquisition, and construction of the new jail facility as it moves through the process of becoming.

The committee will be made up of seven community members. One each will be nominated by the County Commissioners, and the remaining four will be at-large members. All members are required to live in Oklahoma County.

The Commissioners will also vote on two new potential members of the Jail Trust.

Kevin Calvey said that he has nominated Adam Luck of City Care to replace Joe Allbaugh who resigned the Trust in Spring. Luck was recommended by the Jail Trust’s Citizen Advisory Board.

Loretta Radford, a District 1 appointee, recently resigned the Trust to take a special judgeship in Tulsa. Commissioner Carrie Blumert has nominated community leader Pastor Derrick Scobey.

The Commissioners meet Monday at 9:00 a.m.

Annual Report

Finally, Executive Director Tim Tardibono presented the organization’s annual report for the fourth year of CJAC’s existence.

Tardibono led with an explanation of the many diversion programs that aim to keep people out of long term incarceration. These programs have grown more robust over the past year, leading to somewhat diminished jail population counts. The average population for the jail in the past year has been consistently below 1,700 for the first time in years.

Notably, the jail has nearly eliminated triple-celling detainees. Over the past year, the number of cells with three detainees has been zero to single-digits, down significantly from previous years.

Activists protest elsewhere

While CJAC met in Oklahoma City, a group of activists who routinely attend CJAC and Jail Trust meetings to call for accountability, held a press conference at Midwest City’s City Hall.

The group is calling upon Midwest City to vote against remaining a part of the CJAC coalition and continuing their interlocal agreements with the Oklahoma County Jail Trust to house city detainees in the Oklahoma County Jail.

The City Council of Midwest City will hold a vote on September 27 to determine whether they will continue participating in the county-wide organization.

CJAC’s next scheduled meeting is October 20 at 3:00 p.m. at Northcare.

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