Oklahoma County Jail Workers in Line for Potential Pay Raises Amid Budget Surplus

OKLAHOMA CITY – (KOKH) — Pay raises could be coming soon to those working in the Oklahoma County Jail.

“It’s important to me that we pay them fairly and we compensate them for the dangerous work that they do everyday,” said Brandi Gardner, CEO of the Oklahoma County Jail.

According to Gardner, starting pay at the jail is roughly $38,000. She said the jail is currently facing a surplus and is trying to find ways to reallocate that money to fund raises.

“I think it would make a huge difference in their job satisfaction. As I mentioned many times before, we’re asking them to do one of the most dangerous jobs here in the state in probably one of the worst facilities we have in the state, and we’re not paying them what they’re worth,” she said.

Gardner could not say exactly how much of a pay increase employees would receive, but said the jail is looking to give them the highest possible increase, in an effort to retain and attract employees.

“Due to a number of reasons, we’ve had people that are departing for higher-paying jobs. We’ve had a lot of resignations or terminations that needed to be made, just to improve the quality of staff in the facility. So, it’s rough right now, but the staff that we do have are working very hard,” she said.

Gardner said the next steps in making pay raises a reality is simply sitting down and crunching the numbers.

“Really, it’s just sitting down, looking at the numbers, looking at our budget, what we anticipate bringing in this month, and how we can reallocate all of that money and distribute that amongst our staff,” she said.

Gardner said once all that is done, she will take it to the jail trust’s next meeting on September 5th, where she said hopefully the raises will be approved.