KRMG In Depth: Former Chief of Security for Oklahoma prisons blasts DOC Director on staffing levels

TULSA — A highly-decorated former Chief Security Officer who served the state for more than twenty years says he retired in January so he could step up and draw attention to what he characterizes as the dangerous state of Oklahoma’s prison system.

Jason Lemons tells KRMG he had hoped to complete a full 25 years’ service before retiring, but says he couldn’t wait any longer.

[Hear the KRMG In Depth Report on Jason Lemons and his concerns regarding the DOC HERE]

“It was getting to a point with all the lies and the staff shortages and everything that was going on - I knew I could retire and I wanted to help be a voice to help J.J. and Bobby,” he told KRMG this week, “because everything that they’ve been stating is fact, is factual.”

He was referring to State Representative Justin “J. J.” Humphrey, the Republican chair of the Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and Bobby Cleveland, a former lawmaker and current Executive Director of Oklahoma Corrections Professionals, a non-profit advocacy group for corrections and pardon and parole employees.

Lemons contacted KRMG after reading part of our In Depth Report on the Department of Corrections (links below).

He specifically wanted to address the DOC’s contention that staffing levels were within acceptable limits, with ratio of roughly one security officers per 15 inmates.

“Dick Connors, where I was Chief of Security, we had 1250 inmates,” he told KRMG. “We literally had 12 to 14, 15 max officers on shift,” which would be a ratio of closer to 83 prisoners per officer.

Contacted about the discrepancy, a DOC spokeswoman said comparing officers on duty to the prison population is not how they calculate that ratio, but has not responded to a request for the formula the agency uses, or how it arrived at that 15 to 1 ratio.

What really matters, Lemons said, is the dire lack of personnel which endangers prisoners and staff alike.

“There are not enough people,” Lemons insisted, “and he keeps lying saying that there is enough people, and there’s not. And that’s the part that’s easy to figure out, and prove really quick that he’s lying,” he continued, referring to DOC Director Steven Harpe.

“We are bare bones, so that’s why you have more contraband, more stabbings, bad food, less food, not getting to see medical as much,” Lemons said. “There’s just not enough staff across the board anywhere.”

And that, he says, will inevitably lead to violence.

“An officer’s gonna get killed, we’re gonna have a riot - something really bad’s gonna happen,” Lemons warned.

KRMG has again reached out to the DOC for a response.

[Hear Part One of our series on Oklahoma prisons HERE]

[Hear Part Two of our series on Oklahoma prisons HERE]

[Hear Part Three of our series on Oklahoma prisons HERE]

[Hear Part Five of our series on Oklahoma prisons HERE]