Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols said Friday the city will immediately close its municipal jail.
The announcement comes one day after The Frontier published a story and video showing the final hours of Justin Benner, who died at the jail in September 2025 after detention officers placed him in a full-body restraint device and left him alone in a cell.
“Over the last 24 hours, I know many Tulsans have had questions about our municipal lockup and the way our detention system operates,” Nichols said in a statement. “Those are important questions, and regardless of any one circumstance, it is my responsibility to ensure our public safety system meets the high standards our community expects.”
Nichols said he has directed the Tulsa Police Department to immediately begin the process of closing the city jail and transitioning detainees to Tulsa County’s David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center. The city will work to transfer most detainees by July 31.
Nichols has instructed Tulsa Public Safety Commissioner Laurel Roberts to evaluate the city’s policies and procedures for detention and transport of arrestees to “ensure they continue to provide clear guidance, reinforce accountability, and reflect the professionalism that Tulsans expect from their public safety system.”
The mayor also announced he will seek to expedite all outstanding open records requests related to the jail.
The city has previously refused to release records to The Frontier related to deaths at the facility.
“I remain committed to making Tulsa the safest big city in the country, and that starts by ensuring our public safety system meets the high standards that Tulsans deserve,” Nichols said.
Two Tulsa city councilors, Laura Bellis and Lori Decter Wright, expressed outrage at the jail’s treatment of Benner and called for the jail to be closed after The Frontier published its story about the death on Thursday.
“In light of the truly horrific footage released today by The Frontier, reports of deaths, lack of adequate onsite medical care, my moral compass compels me to demand that the municipal jail be shut down,” Bellis wrote in a statement.
A Frontier investigation in March found at least seven people have died from preventable causes in the Tulsa Municipal Jail in the past three years. The reporting also found employees repeatedly warned officials about unsafe conditions, jail staff ignored detainees’ medical needs, and jail administrators retaliated against employees who raised concerns.
Tulsa housed municipal arrestees at the county jail until 2018, when a dispute over detention costs prompted the city to open its own lockup. City leaders argued at the time that a municipal jail would be safer and cheaper than relying on the county. But The Frontier found the city jail’s death rate today far exceeds that of the county jail and its operating costs have swelled to millions per year, much more than officials originally intended.
Tulsa had already prepared to vacate the downtown building that houses its municipal jail in 2028 and city leaders have been weighing whether to construct a new jail or once again pay Tulsa County to house municipal detainees.
In April, Mayor Monroe Nichols proposed setting aside more than $10 million to build a new city jail with room for 140 detainees.
This story was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and The Frontier. Read the story here.