Visitation reinstated at several medium-security facilities

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Department of Corrections has reinstated visitation this weekend at the medium-security units of Joseph Harp Correctional Center, James Crabtree Correctional Center, Lexington Correctional Center and Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Additionally, the following facilities have resumed normal operations, including visitation: Jackie Brannon, Eddie Warrior, Mabel Bassett, Kate Barnard, Jess Dunn, Bill Johnson, John Lilley, William S. Key, Howard McLeod Correctional centers, as well as the minimum units of Lexington Correctional Center, Dick Conner, Mack Alford and James Crabtree correctional centers.

Visitation had been suspended and all state facilities were locked down after gang fights that broke out in six prisons the weekend of Sept. 14. Thirty-six inmates were injured and one, Chad Burns at Dick Conner Correctional Center, died. No further violence took place after the lockdown began.

North Fork, Dick Conner, Mack Alford, Jim E. Hamilton and Northeast Oklahoma correctional centers remain locked down, along with privately operated Davis, Cimarron and Lawton Correctional facilities.

There is no timeline for when the remaining facilities will resume normal operations, but ODOC will do so as soon as the security situation warrants.

“An extended lockdown like this is difficult for our staff and inmates,” Interim ODOC Director Scott Crow said. “Their well-being is of utmost importance. That’s why we will work doubly hard over the coming days to closely monitor inmates’ status to ensure other incidents don’t develop due to the strain of the lockdown.”