TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office officials say they don’t have any plans to change where or how they house female juvenile detainees even though they lost a federal civil rights lawsuit over the issue.
The Tulsa World (https://bit.ly/1OV8YnS ) reports that a federal jury awarded a 23-year-old woman $25,000 in damages Wednesday after ruling that former sheriff Stanley Glanz and acting sheriff Michelle Robinette violated the woman’s civil rights when she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a jailer as a teenager in the jail.
Sheriff’s office spokesman Justin Green says juvenile female inmates will continue to be housed in the Tulsa Jail medical unit. Tulsa County officials maintain that the medical unit is the safest place to house juvenile female inmates, as they said throughout the trial.
Green also said it would impractical to house juvenile females in so-called direct-supervision-style pods, which include living quarters and common areas, that male inmates are housed in.
The Tulsa Jail houses fewer than 10 juvenile females over the course of a year, Green said.
“You can’t build a 100-person pod to house one or two juvenile females,” he said.
He said it was not “fiscally responsible” to pay one officer to “sit and watch one person for 24 hours a day,” either, as suggested by the woman’s attorneys.
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Information from: Tulsa World, https://www.tulsaworld.com
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