Opinion ID: 1292155
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: The Infirmity's Removal

Text: ¶ 17 It is not the act of privatizing the jail that is infirm; rather, the vice consists solely of depriving the sheriff of his oversight control. This infirmity in the statute's application could easily be removed by a contract's amendment that could be imposed ex lege. That amendment would leave the private operator in charge of the day-to-day management, but would place the ultimate oversight over prisoners' discipline and over the facility's operations in the hands of, and under the standards imposed by, the sheriff. ¶ 18 Aside from the mischief of injecting disuniformity with grave constitutional implications, a contractual elimination of the sheriff's control utterly lacks any supportive statutory warrant. [28] When privatizing was accomplished neither the Board of County Commissioners in Tulsa County nor TCCJA was vested with power to control the jail or the authority to oust the sheriff and transfer his control to the private contractor. [29] As one of the common law's ancient guiding beacons eloquently teaches, nemo dat quod non habet  one cannot give that which one does not have, i.e., no one can give a better title to a thing than one possesses. [30]