The board of county commissioners of any county shall have authority to work any convicts confined in the county jail, either as punishment for crime or in lieu of payment of fine and costs, upon public highways in the county, and to employ such guards and other assistants as may be required. It shall be the duty of the sheriff, upon the order of the board of county commissioners, to deliver, to any person authorized to receive them for work, upon public highways, any persons sentenced and confined in the county jail either as punishment for crime or in lieu of payment of fine and costs.
Okla. Stat. tit. 69, § 613