The Cleveland County Board of Commissioners awarded the winning bid for the demolition of the Cleveland County Jail at the Courthouse complex.
The Cleveland County Jail was built in 1983 for a cost of $3,500,000 and totaled 40,000 square feet. This jail replaced the jail that was atop of the Courthouse. Fifteen construction companies bid on the project. The estimated project cost of construction was $4.4 million. The final construction cost came in far lower than the original estimate.
Rees Associates Inc., Architects, Planners Engineers, Oklahoma City, designed the building. The new jail replaced the jail atop of the Courthouse, built in 1934 to house 30 inmates. Rees Associates, Inc. began developing a master plan for the new jail in October 1981. At that time, the average daily jail population was running as high as 68 inmates, with frequent peaks at 80. Rees Associates’ master plan identified the need for a 120-bed jail through 1990 with design provisions for expansion to 220 beds.
In December 2008, Cleveland County residence approved a quarter of 1% sales tax for the construction and maintenance and operations (for the life of the debt) of a new jail. Name in honor of Sheriff Dewayne Beggs, the newly built county jail construction cost once again came in lower than estimated. The F. Dewayne Beggs Detention Center was estimated to cost $39.5 million (including architecture and engineering cost) for the 119,000 square foot facility. Nine construction companies submitted bids. On September of 2009, the Board of County Commissioners awarded the construction of the new jail to Timberlake Construction for $22,350,000.
The F Dewayne Detention Center has the capacity for up to 542 inmates, with segregation for men and women in doom housing, single housing, secure housing, youth offender housing.