The Amos G. Ward Detention Facility, also known as the Rogers County Jail in Rogers County, Oklahoma is the county jail facility for Rogers County, Oklahoma.  The Rogers County Jail is run by the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office and overseen by the Rogers County Sheriff, Scott Walton.  The goal of the Rogers County Sheriff’s Department is to provide fiscally responsible services to the community, while still meeting all of the county’s law enforcement goals.  It considers the primary goal of the jail to be providing secure confinement of inmates and protecting the public safety.

Rogers County is located in northeastern, Oklahoma and includes the communities of Catoosa, Chelsea, Claremore, Fovil, Inola, Jamestown, Oologah, Talala, and Valley Park.  It is also a major transportation route for both interstate and intrastate traffic.  While still a relatively small county, Rogers county has been growing rapidly over the past several decades.  This increase in size has corresponded with an increased demand for jail services.

The Rogers County Sheriff’s Office’s Detention Division is the part of the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office that runs the Amos G. Ward Detention Facility.  The officers who serve as part of the Detention Division are responsible for guarding the facility and the inmates.  This means that they are responsible for public safety by ensuring that the inmates remain incarcerated, but also responsible for ensuring inmate safety and the safety of the other guards for the facility.  Under that umbrella, their duties are somewhat diverse.  Their first duty is preventing escapes from the jail facility.  They also have to ensure that the jail remains in compliance will all applicable state and federal laws.  They run services and programs that deal with inmate welfare.

As a county jail facility, the Amos G. Ward Detention facility is a temporary housing facility.  It holds pre-trial detainees and post-conviction inmates who are awaiting sentencing or transfer to other facilities.  Therefore, it does not have the same level of programming or services that one would find in a long-term facility.  In addition, it must be capable of holding inmates across a variety of security levels, because all types of security risks come into temporary holding facilities.  This means that the facility must be extremely flexible so that it can respond to an ever-changing population of inmates with tremendously varied needs.

The jail must be able to screen and process inmates at intake, to divert inmates to the appropriate security levels.  This means that incoming inmates are assessed on what is known of them at the time.  What is their documented criminal history, what crime is charged, what is known of their mental or physical health condition, and is there anything that would make them a greater or lesser risk of escape or to the inmate population?  Housing decisions are then made based on this knowledge, but may be revised while an inmate is in custody.  All efforts are made to place inmates with other inmates who are deemed to be the same risk-level, but because of the nature of temporary housing and the sometimes limited information available at intake, this is not always possible.  Therefore, inmates may initially be placed in one housing unit and then moved to other units in the jail, when more information becomes available about that inmate or about other inmates in the jail.

Rogers County Jail Addresses

Rogers County Sheriff’s Office
200 South Lynn Riggs Blvd.
Claremore, OK 74017

Amos G. Ward Detention Center
201 S. Cherokee
Claremore, OK 74017

Mailing Address

The Rogers County Jail mailing address is:

Amos G. Ward Detention Center
201 S. Cherokee
Claremore, OK 74017

Inmate Mailing Address

To send inmate mail via the U.S. Postal Service, you send it to the following address:

Inmate Name
c/o Rogers County Jail
201 S. Cherokee
Claremore, OK 74017

Inmates can receive regular mail via the USPS.  The jail will not accept any mail that is dropped off at the office or that is not sent through the mail system.

The outside of the envelope has to have a complete name and address in the return address.  There cannot be any writing or drawing on the outside of the envelope.

Inmates may receive up to three appropriate photos inside their letters.  Examples of inappropriate photos include photos with nudity, explicit sexual content, gang-related information, any photos that could be part of an escape plan, or any photos with incendiary material.

Except for some legal mail, which is protected by attorney/client privilege, all incoming and outgoing inmate mail is subject to search.  All contraband items will be confiscated.  In addition, you may be subject to criminal charges for attempting to send contraband items into the jail.  Examples of contraband include: weapons, drugs, alcohol, incendiary materials, and escape plans.

Inmates are permitted to send an unlimited amount of mail, but must purchase their stamps through inmate commissary.  Inmates cannot receive mail with stamps, stickers, or similar devices.

Inmates can receive published material like books and magazines.  However, these published materials cannot be sent from individuals.  They must be sent either directly from a recognized publisher or from an authorized bookseller.  If you have questions about whether your bookseller can send books to the jail, contact the jail for more information. This includes Bibles, which is a change from the jail’s older policy, which allowed people to bring or ship Bibles to inmates.

Phone Numbers

The main contact number for the Amos G. Ward Detention Facility is 918-342-9700.  There is a main contact number for the Rogers County Sheriff’s Department: 918-342-9700.  The Rogers County Sheriff’s Department’s normal administrative hours of operation are Monday- Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm, with a lunch break from 12:00pm to 1:00pm.

Inmate Search

Rogers County Jail has an inmate search function.  This function lists by booking time, so that the most recent inmates who have been booked appear first on the list.  The roster shows each inmate’s name, booking number, booking date and time, the charges against them, and their booking photo/mugshot.  You can also click on a button that says “view profile.”  If you view an inmate’s profile, you get more detailed information about the inmate.  That information includes age, gender, race, and bail amounts if any bail has been set. 

Inmate Roster

Rogers County Jail has an inmate search function.  This function lists by booking time, so that the most recent inmates who have been booked appear first on the list.  The roster shows each inmate’s name, booking number, booking date and time, the charges against them, and their booking photo/mugshot.  You can also click on a button that says “view profile.”  If you view an inmate’s profile, you get more detailed information about the inmate.  That information includes age, gender, race, and bail amounts if any bail has been set.  The Rogers County Jail also maintains a roster of inmates who have been released in the past 48 hours.  The recent release roster contains the same information on the inmate roster, but with the date and time of the inmate’s release. 

Mugshots

Rogers County Jail has mugshots available on both their inmate roster, which you can find at the inmate search function, and on the 48 hour recent release roster.

Visitation

All visitors must comply with visitation rules at all times or the visit may be terminated and the visitor’s visitation privileges may be revoked.

Rogers County Jail uses Access Corrections to offer video based visitation.  All visits are conducted by video, whether they are on-site visits using the Visitation Kiosks or remote visits that allow you to visit from home.

There are several benefits to remote visitation, including the ability to engage in more frequent visits.  They also provide the jail with an opportunity to increase visitation without the normal related security concerns.  For remote visitation you do not have to worry about traveling to the jail facility and all of the related concerns and expenses, such as travel and time away from work.  Remote video visitations do not require you to check in early, like you would for on-site visitations.  You can have possessions in remote visitations and do not have to leave your possessions in the car or worry about having only allowed items if bringing young children to visit.

You must make an appointment to visit, whether planning an onsite or remote visit.  You can make a visit at one of the visitation kiosks located in the jail lobby, by phone at 866-345-1884, or online at www.accesscorrections.com.

While remote visits are not as rigidly structured as in-person visits, there are still rules for jail visitation.  Visitors are expected to follow a dress code and not wear clothing that is excessively revealing, gang-related, obscene, or violent.  Visitors may be limited to an approved visitor list.  Visits can be monitored and recorded.

Inmate Phone Privileges

Inmates can place outgoing calls, but cannot receive incoming calls.  If you have an emergency and you feel like the inmate needs to be contacted, you can contact the jail, but the jail will not take messages for inmates and generally will not relay information to inmates. They may make some exceptions for specific circumstances.

When inmates come into intake, they are permitted free-of-charge telephone usage for the purposes of booking.  Inmates may also receive free calls to notify friends or family members of status changes.

If you receive phone calls from inmates, you cannot use any call features.  This is because inmates are only permitted to talk to people at the number they are directly contacting.  Three way calls are call-forwarding are both prohibited and may result in loss of phone privileges. The person assisting you in making your three-way call will have their number removed from the system as well as the number the call is forward to.

The Rogers County Jail’s telephone system allows you to refuse calls or block calls from being received.  If you are receiving any harassing or threatening phone calls from a person incarcerated in the jail facility, immediately inform the jail.

All phone calls are monitored automatically by the phone system.  Calls may be recorded.

Trust Accounts / Commissary / Send Money

Rogers County Jail uses Access Corrections for inmate trust accounts.  You can add funds to an inmate’s trust account at the kiosk in the jail lobby at 201 S. Cherokee in Claremore.  The kiosk only accepts cash.  You can access the kiosk 24 hours a day.  You can also call 1-866-345-1884 or go online to www.accesscorrections.com to add funds.

The Rogers County Jail operates a commissary, where inmates can purchase items that are not supplied by the jail.  Commissary is ordered once a week.  Commissary orders are on Tuesday and money must be deposited by 8:00am on Tuesday in order to be used for that week’s commissary orders.  Commissary orders are non-refundable; even if an inmate is released before the commissary is delivered, there will be no refund.  The inmate will be able to pick up the commissary items at the jail.

Commissary funds are only released to the inmate, and will not be released to anyone else for any reason.  Released inmates are responsible for coming to the front office of the jail to request a check for the balance of his or her commissary funds.  Inmates who are transferred to other facilities will have their commissary funds transferred, as well.

Because inmates have commissary available to them, you cannot bring any items up for your inmate, except for: medications, denture paste, contacts, contact solution.  Trustees may be entitled to more items.  Any items brought to the jail for an inmate must be marked with the inmate’s name and brought to the Night Bail Bonds door.

Bail Information

In Rogers County, Oklahoma, you can pay a cash bond at the Night Bailbonds Door, which is located on the northwest corner of the jail building.  This door is to the north of the big garage.

There are multiple types of bonds.  The two most common types of bonds are cash bonds and surety bonds.  Surety bonds are bonds that can be secured by posting a percentage of the bond.  Generally, these bonds are not posted by friends or relatives, but by professionals known as bondsmen.  The bondsmen act as sureties to guarantee the unpaid portion of the bond, in the event that the defendant fails to appear for a later court date.  The bonding company and the person guaranteeing the bond (the guarantor) enter into an agreement for the bonding company to post bond on behalf of a defendant in exchange for a fee.  The guarantor is generally not going to be the defendant, but a person outside of jail, and the guarantor may be required to post some type of security or collateral.  There is a fee associated with this type of bond, which is usually 10% of the bond amount.  That fee is pay to the bondsman, not the court, and is usually non-refundable.  The county is not involved in the contractual relationship between the guarantor and the bondsman.  When a surety bond is posted and a defendant fails to appear, the guarantor is liable to the bondsman for the entire amount of the bond.

The Rogers County Jail will not recommend any particular bondsman.  However, if a bondsman or bond company is working in Rogers County, it has been approved by the Rogers County Bail Bond Board.  If you need the services of a bondsman, you can find one in the Yellow Pages or online.

Conclusion

The Amos G. Ward Detention Center is the county jail facility in Rogers County, Oklahoma.  It is located at 201 South Cherokee Avenue in Claremore, Oklahoma.  It is run by the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office’s Detention Division.

Like most county-level jail facilities, the Amos G. Ward Detention Center is designed primarily as a temporary holding facility.  In addition to holding inmates who have been detained by the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office, it also holds inmates who have been detained by other law enforcement agencies in Rogers County.

The jail holds inmates who are pretrial detainees and post-conviction inmates who may be awaiting sentencing or movement to other facilities.  It also houses trustee inmates, who are serving their sentences at the jail facility rather than at another correctional facility.