The medical contractor at the center of a joint investigation by The Frontier and The Marshall Project is exiting the Cleveland County Detention Center after almost two decades. 

TK Health, formerly known as Turn Key Health Clinics, said in a letter dated March 6 that it would not renew its contract with Cleveland County. The company said it would leave the jail on June 30. 

“The TK Health team has continued to enhance the delivery of health services at the detention center during our 16-year partnership with Cleveland County. However, we believe it is time for the county to seek an alternative option to provide health services,” the company said in a statement to The Frontier. “TK Health leadership has offered to assist the county in ensuring high-quality patient care during the transition.”

The company declined to answer why it decided not to continue to serve the Cleveland County jail. 

Cleveland County Sheriff Chris Amason said he was already planning to seek new bids for the contract before receiving the letter from TK Health. 

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“There was some talk about the price last year — the price of the service,” Amason said. “And I think this was just the perfect opportunity for both of us to kind of evaluate what’s best for each of us.”

Amason said his office is also looking at ways to improve access to mental health care and medications at the jail.

There has been a history of deaths and complaints about access to health care at the Cleveland County jail. 

​​Cleveland County District Court Judge Michael Tupper wrote to detention center officials in January after hearing complaints about poor living conditions at the jail, including a lack of access to health care. Two detainees complained to Cleveland County District Court Judge Thad Balkman of long waits to see a medical provider, according to court transcripts. One man told the judge he requested an appointment for a problem with his knee and waited three weeks without seeing a doctor. Amason said jail staff investigated and found the complaints to be unfounded. TK Health said it couldn’t comment on the care of individuals. 

The Frontier and The Marshall Project published an investigation in July 2024 that found TK Health employees didn’t send people to the hospital in dozens of cases when they were in crisis, catatonic or refusing to eat or drink. The company staffed mental health and other medical positions with low-level nursing assistants trained to perform basic tasks like taking vital signs, but not to diagnose or assess medical conditions.

The investigation highlighted the 2022 death of Shannon Hanchett in the Cleveland County jail after her arrest during a mental health crisis. It took 10 days for a doctor to consult on Hanchett’s care at the jail while she was in psychosis, records show. Hanchett’s death was caused by complications from a heart defect, with contributing factors including psychosis “with auditory and visual hallucinations” and dehydration, an autopsy later found. 

At least six detainees have died since the beginning of 2024 at the facility. 

The Cleveland County Commissioners hired a consultant last year to identify the root causes of deaths at the jail. County officials announced in March that a preliminary report would not be released publicly, claiming it was protected by attorney-client privilege.

Oklahoma City-based TK Health has been the medical contractor at the Cleveland County jail since 2009 when Jon Echols, who is now campaigning to become the next Oklahoma Attorney General, and his business partners created the company to provide nursing staff at the facility. The company has since expanded to provide medical care in jails in about a dozen states and rebranded under the name TK Health last year. The company announced in October that it had expanded into 27 new jails in Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana.