Tragedy Behind Bars: Oklahoma Prison Fight Results in Two Deaths, Over 30 Injuries
Two prisoners were killed and more than 30 others were hurt in a huge fight at an Oklahoma jail. This caused a lockdown, a break in visitations, and new calls for changes to be made to the state’s prisons to stop the violence.
On Friday, there was a fight at the Lawton Correction and Rehabilitation Centre, which is a privately run jail about 90 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. “There was a group disturbance at LCRF that hurt several inmates and killed two,” Corrections Department Spokesperson Kay Thompson told The Oklahoman, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, in an email. “It’s unknown at this time how many had minor injuries that were treated at the facility.”
The event is being looked into by the inspector general of the corrections department. Thompson said it happened because of a “operational error,” but he didn’t give any more details. She also said that visitors couldn’t come to the building over the weekend.
Founder of Advocacy Group Claims Event Involved Two Gangs
Emily Barnes, founder of the criminal justice advocacy group Hooked on Justice, said that the fight was between two gangs that were meant to stay apart. She said that the fight began when one of the gangs was let into the garden.
Barnes said that inmates first told her on Friday evening that the prison was locked down. Because of it, she said, prisoners didn’t eat until around 1 a.m.
Barnes called it a “mini-riot” because more than 30 people were hurt and more than 30 people were involved. He then criticised the state’s department of prisons. “DOC should do something about this.”
Thompson, the spokesperson, said that the operations team for the corrections department is working closely with The Geo Group, a security group that runs prisons, to figure out what happened on Friday and what needs to be done to make things right. “ODOC is always concerned for the health and safety of those in our care and those incarcerated in contracted facilities,” she told us.
The Geo Group said they knew about what happened and that one cop was hurt but not seriously. “The health and safety of all those in our care has always been our number one priority, and we have zero tolerance for any acts of violence,” an official said.
State Legislator Thinks It’s Time for a State of Emergency Proclamation
State Rep. Justin Humphrey, who is in charge of the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee, gave a strong reprimand for what happened. Humphrey has said bad things about how the prison system is run and has asked for policy changes to better protect both DOC workers and prisoners. After hearing about the
“I am very disappointed that the Department of Corrections has ignored the overwhelming evidence that our prison system is primed for disaster,” he said. “I have been publicly warning how the violence in Oklahoma prisons has been escalating.”
According to Humphrey, it was time for the state to declare a state of emergency in the prison system. “I hope the governor and our legislators will take notice and take proper actions to prevent more lives from lost,” he told me.
Years of prisoner bloodshed have made the state a mess.
In the last five years, eight people have been killed at the Lawton Correctional Facility and the Allen Gamble Correctional Centre in Holdenville (formerly the Davis Correctional Centre). This is the most of any prison in the state system, which is still having a hard time with violence among inmates.
The prisons department’s records show that between 2019 and 2023, at least 29 prisoners were killed. On Saturday, the Corrections Department said they were waiting for the medical examiner’s office to report the official cause of death for 28 more prisoners who died in 2023.
If you don’t count executions, murder is the fourth most common way that inmates die in Oklahoma jails.
Corrections Department officials have said in the past that the lack of workers isn’t to blame for prison violence. They say that gang activity and illegal goods are to blame for deaths and injuries, and they are trying hard to cut down on these things. New technology, changes to rules and processes, regular checks of prison cells, and putting rival gang members in different areas have all helped lower the risk and found weapons, drugs, and cellphones.