The Detention Center
Comanche County Detention Center
- Operated byComanche County (listed as a county department; Jail Administrator David Weber)
- Address315 SW 5th Street, Lawton, OK 73501
- Phone580-250-1902
- Jail AdministratorDavid Weber
- PREA stance (county's own words)maintains a zero tolerance for offender / offender sexual abuse, sexual assaults or harassment, and staff sexual misconduct
- Visitation vendorProdigy Solutions (virtual visitation, messaging, telephone)
- Rated capacityNot found
- State inspectionOklahoma inspects this jail. Read the state report →
Source: Comanche County — official source · checked August 21, 2026
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓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
- ✓How to post bond
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
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 Michael Merritt
- NoteCounty site lists 'Michael Merritt, Comanche County Sheriff' with Undersheriff Kevin Duran. Confirmed by the 2024 State Election Board roster ('Sheriff - Michael Merritt, R, Lawton').
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Comanche 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 5
- Scott Meaders - District Judge
- Grant Sheperd - District Judge
- Jay Walker - District Judge
- Lisa Shaw - Associate District Judge
- Christine Galbraith - Special Judge
- Susan Zwaan - Special Judge
Comanche County Courthouse, 315 SW 5th Street, Lawton, OK 73501
- 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
- Strongest disclosure record in this group alongside Cleveland County: five of ten checks met (named facility, live roster, PREA page, bid/contract listings, and published bond-release information).
- Notable that the Detention Center is presented as a COUNTY DEPARTMENT with its own Jail Administrator (David Weber) rather than under the Sheriff's page - the Sheriff's Office is a separate listing at the same 315 SW 5th Street address.
- The county publishes a 'Weekend Bond Release' page explaining bail bond release and appearance schedules - a genuinely useful disclosure that almost no other county in this group offers.
- Still missing: rated capacity, any jail budget figure, in-custody death reporting, republication of OSDH inspection reports, and a jail fee/commissary schedule.
- The inmate roster is hosted on a third-party vendor (BluHorse) rather than on the county domain, so the county controls the link but not the record.
- Commissioners have individual district pages (/255/District-1, /256/District-2, /257/District-3). Agendas and minutes are posted through the site's AgendaCenter.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Comanche 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.
- Find your polling place — OK Voter Portal →
- Your county election board →
- Register to vote in Oklahoma →
The county election board runs the polling place in Comanche 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