Investigators listed 21 policy violations in the report, including for lack of staff training, improper supervision and failing to report incidents such as bullying and inappropriate sexual contact.
Years after Oklahomans approved a measure to fund county-level mental health and substance abuse treatment services, jails are still considered the de facto mental health facilities. Sometimes with deadly results.
Terral Ellis died from sepsis and pneumonia after employees at the Ottawa County jail ignored, mocked and ridiculed him as he pleaded for medical attention, video from the jail shows. Lawyers for the county have said staff didn’t know he had a serious medical condition.
The Frontier is tracking every jail death in Oklahoma in 2019. We hope to uncover more about how and why people die in Oklahoma jails.
The change comes following a story by The Frontier that showed CLEET’s mental health courses were not being reviewed for appropriateness prior to being offered to officers.
Justin Xaochay Thao, 20, died in an Oklahoma City hospital after Grady County jailers found him hanging in an isolated in cell. In the time leading up to his death, Thao yelled out several pleas to jailers, video provided by the family’s attorney shows.
The report, released on Monday, found a preterm birthrate of 11.4 percent in the state, an increase compared to 11.1 percent last year
Since July 1, only 243 inmates — or about 8 percent of those affected — have received drugs that could cure the disease, according to data provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
