State personnel at Great Plains confined several prisoners in two-by-two-foot shower stalls for days with limited access to basic necessities, two correctional officers allege in an incident report obtained by Oklahoma Watch. An internal agency investigation confirmed that prisoners were in fact held in the shower stalls for several hours but ruled some of the officers’ claims as inclusive.
The officers, dispatched from the John Lilley Correctional Center in Boley to alleviate staffing shortages at Great Plains, worked the night shift in the restricted housing unit on Aug. 14 and 15. Oklahoma Watch is not naming the employees due to concerns of workplace retaliation.
The officers reported that inmates confined in the shower stalls complained of not receiving restroom breaks, water or mattress pads. One prisoner told the officers that he had not been let out of the shower stall for three consecutive days. Another said he was suicidal so he could be let out of the stall he had been in for four days. Inmates who had been in the showers for an extended period were defecating and urinating into cups and trash bags, the report said.
