The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office is asking a judge to order the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to pick up state inmates awaiting transfers from the county jail.
The request for injunction was filed Tuesday. Tulsa County Undersheriff Tim Albin says transferring the inmates will ease the jail's overcrowding problem.
As of Tuesday, the county jail held 1,792 inmates — above the facility's capacity of 1,714 inmates. Albin tells the Tulsa World that about 160 to 170 inmates are being held for the Department of Corrections.
Officials say there are about 1,800 inmates statewide who are in county jails awaiting transfer to prisons.
DOC spokesman Jerry Massie says the backlog exists because there is no room in state prisons. As of Tuesday, state prisons were at 98 percent capacity.
