Cleveland County, Oklahoma — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Cleveland County Detention Center

Operated byCleveland County Sheriff's Office (the county describes the Detention Center as 'a division of the Sheriff's Office')
Address2550 W Franklin Road, Norman, OK 73069
Phone405-701-7700
Operator (county's own words)As a division of the Sheriff's Office, the Cleveland County Detention Center...
Published custody policyCCSO Custody Manual -
Published agency policy manual
Open records contact publishedlsowards@clevelandcountyok.com / ccsopio@ClevelandCountyOK.com
State inspectionOklahoma inspects this jail. Read the state report →

Source: Cleveland County — official source · checked August 21, 2026

Transparency rating

3/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✓Who is in custody
✗Beds and daily population — not published
✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
✗Deaths in custody — not published
✓PREA audits
✗Independent inspection — not published
✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
✗How to post bond — not published
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Cleveland County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked August 21, 2026. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Darrell Weaver

NoteAPPOINTED, NOT ELECTED. The Board of County Commissioners voted to appoint Darrell Weaver on June 22, 2026; he was sworn in July 6, 2026 and serves the remainder of the term, which expires in 2028.

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Cleveland County Sheriff's Office · checked August 21, 2026

The Judges

Oklahoma elects its district judges in nonpartisan elections. District and associate district judges set bond and decide who waits in this jail.

District Court, Judicial District 21

Thad Balkman - District Judge
Lynne McGuire - District Judge
Michael Tupper - District Judge
Jeff Virgin - District Judge
Bethany Stanley - Associate District Judge
Scott Brockman - Special Judge
Bridget Childers - Special Judge
Nathaniel Hales - Special Judge

Cleveland County Courthouse, 200 S. Peters Ave., Norman, OK 73069

Still needed

The county's bond schedule
Share of the jail population held pretrial
Median time from booking to first appearance

Source: the state judiciary · checked August 21, 2026

The County Commissioners

They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.

What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

APPOINTED SHERIFF: Darrell Weaver was appointed by the Board of County Commissioners on June 22, 2026 (sworn July 6, 2026) after Sheriff Chris Amason resigned in April 2026. He will serve until the term expires in 2028 without having faced voters for this office.
The commissioners' own statement notes this was District 1 Commissioner Rod Cleveland's FIFTH sheriff appointment as a commissioner - an unusually high rate of mid-term sheriff turnover for one county.
There was also a 'Board of County Commissioners Response to Call for Special Election' (posted June 8, 2026), indicating a public dispute over whether the vacancy should have gone to a special election rather than appointment.
JAIL NAME INCONSISTENT ACROSS OFFICIAL SOURCES: the Sheriff's Office says 'Cleveland County Detention Center'; the county government's own staff directory lists the same 2550 W. Franklin Rd. address as 'County Jail'. (Third-party sites use 'F.
Best disclosure in this group: the county publishes a PREA page, a full Detention/Custody policy manual, the Sheriff's Office policy manual, a live inmate portal, and Legistar agendas and minutes.
Cleveland is one of only three counties in Oklahoma beta-testing court e-filing, per the District Court Clerk's page.
Cleveland County is the only county in this group of ten with a real agenda-and-minutes system: a hosted Legistar calendar carrying agendas in advance and minutes after approval. Commissioners also sit as the County Budget Board.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Cleveland County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).

How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?

Your VOTE is POWERFUL.

The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.

The sheriff is on your ballot

The county election board runs the polling place in Cleveland County and prints the ballot the sheriff’s name is on. Links from the Oklahoma State Election Board and vote.gov.

Names verified August 21, 2026 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered