TULSA, Okla. –<\/p>\n
The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health has been under fire for more than a year because inmates have been sitting in jail for months on end, waiting for mental health treatment. Tulsa County has been one of the state\u2019s biggest critics.<\/p>\n
The state Department of Mental Health has said space inside the Tulsa County Jail intended for treatment has been used for ICE detainees. TCSO confirmed the jail does house ICE inmates under 287G and 48-hour holds, but said the pod intended for the mental health program is still available.<\/p>\n
Regalado says the area that would be used for the mental health program has been empty for a long time and that his office has been waiting on the state to act.<\/p>\n
Consultants overseeing the state Department of Mental Health\u2019s compliance with a lawsuit over inmate mental health care recently recommended expanding treatment into county jails rather than sending inmates to treatment.<\/p>\n
\n What the sheriff says<\/p>\n
Regalado said discussions about using a jail pod for treatment took place last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a recent meeting, I think as early as last year, sometime, maybe August, I don\u2019t know, somewhere towards the latter part of 2025 again, discussing the potential of them utilizing a pod, and we said we\u2019re still open to that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Regalado said he hasn\u2019t heard from the state since that meeting.<\/p>\n
\n Lawsuit deadline missed<\/p>\n
The lawsuit required the state to begin an in-jail mental health treatment program by June 2025. The state claims it was unable to meet that deadline because TCSO is using that space to hold ICE detainees.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s categorically false. We still have a pod right now that\u2019s available,\u201d Regalado said. \u201cYou know, the ball has been in their court, especially since the consent decree came out, and we\u2019ve heard nothing from them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consultants recommended the Sheriff\u2019s Office identify a Department of Mental Health official to oversee the program by Feb. 16. Regalado said that\u2019s not their responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no obligation to offer up a pod, but I did several years ago, because we are in a crisis. We have people who are languishing in our jail that have not been treated yet, and you know, we continue to have those people,\u201d said Regalado.<\/p>\n
News On 6 contacted the state Department of Mental Health seeking clarification on who claimed ICE detainees were occupying the space instead of using that space for treatment but had not received a response as of publication.<\/p>\n
The state Department of Mental Health said it submitted a compliance plan last week on how it will follow the lawsuit and will file a final version once it receives approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TULSA, Okla. – The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health has been under fire for more than a year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":["post-450166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}