City & County Jails in Oklahoma
Oklahoma - Inmate Search - All County Jail Rosters
Clicking on any of the Oklahoma Counties or Cities below will direct you to a list of all the City Jails, County Jails and Juvenile Detention Centers in that specific County.
Search for any jail in Oklahoma
Oklahoma county jails and state prisons
Oklahoma has 77 counties, and the sheriff runs the jail. Oklahoma County Detention Center in Oklahoma City and the Tulsa County jail are the buildings most families are looking for. Cleveland, Canadian, Comanche, and Garfield are the next tier. A rural county in the Panhandle or the southeast may have one small jail, or it may book into a neighbor when the beds are gone. City police departments have holding rooms. They are not county jails.
The State Department of Health writes the jail rules and inspects every detention center at least once a year. That inspection practice goes back to the 1970s. In May 2025 the governor signed the Jail Standards Act, which put the yearly inspection and the construction review into current law. The standards cover admission, security, food, clothing, a usable bed, and showers, toilets, and basins at no worse than one for every 20 people. A cell has to have 40 square feet for the first person and 20 more for each person after that. Counties can build barrack-style jails for minimum-security prisoners. Someone has to be on duty around the clock.
Jails in Oklahoma hold people before trial and people serving a year or less. A longer felony sentence goes to the Department of Corrections. A federal sentence goes to the Bureau of Prisons. FCI El Reno is the federal prison in the state. The state prisons families ask about include the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, Lexington Assessment and Reception Center, Dick Conner in Hominy, and Mabel Bassett in McLoud for women. Those are not county jails. When a county jail holds someone for another county, for the state, or for the U.S. Marshals, it bills a daily rate.
How many county jails are there in Oklahoma?
Most of the 77 counties operate a jail, and a few large counties run more than one building. Oklahoma County and Tulsa account for a large share of the beds. A full jail in the Panhandle means a long transfer, not a second jail in the same town.
How many juvenile detention centers are there in Oklahoma?
Eleven. The Office of Juvenile Affairs contracts with county commissioners for secure detention. The centers hold boys and girls after arrest, during the court case, and while an OJA placement is pending. The list is Canadian, Cleveland, Comanche, Craig, Creek, Garfield, Oklahoma, Pittsburg, Pottawatomie, Tulsa, and Woodward. Most counties do not have one and send a youth to the nearest of those eleven.
A commitment is a different placement, in an OJA secure or residential program, not in the county detention center. Search the county of the arrest. The listing shows the detention center that county uses.
What the first days in an Oklahoma county jail are like
At the Oklahoma County jail the first day is a booking floor. Identity, prints, a medical screen, a search, clothes bagged, one call if the phones are up. The person has not been convicted. There is no phone in the cell, and no way to know if a shift, a truck in a lot, or the kids are covered. Glasses stay in property until someone signs for them. In a small county jail the same steps happen in a smaller room, with fewer people and less space to separate them.
Summer sits on the building. The uniform does not fit. The bunk is thin, and the next bed is awake. Meals are plain and on a clock. Mail is slow. A visit from Guymon to Oklahoma City is a drive that may not happen. Withdrawal from alcohol, opioids, or methamphetamine can start before the first appearance, and the night is when that gets loud. Deputies who apply the rules the same way to everyone run a quieter pod. Uneven rules are how contraband moves. Oklahoma County and Tulsa can separate by risk. A Panhandle jail often cannot.
Tablets, video visits, and deposits take some of the isolation out of the larger jails. A message home does not fix the bed or the case, and the account can be shut off. Each county page on this site lists the jail phone, the vendor, and the way to send money for that sheriff’s office.