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The Lawton Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility is Oklahoma's only remaining private prison. courtesy photo
Three Lawton Correctional Facility staff members on duty when a prisoner was brutally murdered and left undetected in a trash can for hours violated several state policies and procedures, an internal Oklahoma Department of Corrections investigation determined.
Just before 10 a.m. on Oct. 26, prison staff discovered inmate Raymond Bailey unresponsive in a gray trash can placed near an entrance to housing unit 4A. Medical personnel pronounced Bailey dead at the scene and transferred his body to the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner’s office, which ruled the death a homicide.The medical examiner’s report indicated that Bailey had been hogtied, gagged and beaten to death with no staff intervention.
Closed-circuit television footage showed several prisoners entering and exiting Bailey’s cell between 5 and 5:45 a.m., corrections department investigator Tommy Stranahan wrote in an incident report submitted to the Comanche County District Attorney’s office. At 7:53 a.m. two prisoners exited the cell with a trash can that appeared to be filled with something heavy and placed it near the entrance to the housing unit.
Correctional officers walked past Bailey’s cell several times between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., the period when the fatal attack likely occurred, but did not shine a flashlight into the cell or otherwise attempt to investigate activity in the area.
Just before the attack, an officer on the unit allowed a prisoner from an adjacent pod into Bailey’s housing unit without checking their credentials. That prisoner was observed entering Bailey’s cell and is listed as a suspect in the murder investigation.
Oklahoma Watch previously reported that prisoner advocates began receiving messages via state-issued tablets as early as 7 a.m. indicating that a prisoner had been murdered and placed inside a trash can, nearly three hours before staff found Bailey’s body.
The motive for the murder remains unknown, with prisoners giving various accounts of Bailey owing money or being owed money. Stranahan’s investigation recommended second-degree murder, possession of contraband and evidence tampering charges for four state prisoners. The Comanche County District Attorney’s office has not yet filed charges.
The investigation did not recommend criminal charges for the three staff members on duty inside the unit, though an internal administrative probe found cause for their termination because they neglected required cell checks and search and seizure standards. Corrections department investigators recovered a 12.5-inch long improvised shank believed to be the murder weapon.
The delayed response to the attack has raised questions about the state’s future with its last remaining private prison, which is owned and operated by The GEO Group and houses about 2,600 medium- and maximumsecurity prisoners. The Floridabased private corrections company is also facing litigation that alleges its staff willfully neglected the urgent medical needs of Oklahoma prisoner Justin Barrientos and caused his death in January 2023.
The Department of Corrections recently renewed its contract with The GEO Group to house Oklahoma prisoners in Lawton, which was set to expire on July 31, agency spokesperson Kay Thompson said. The agreement allows the state to purchase the facility and take over operations with a minimum of 180 days’ notice.
Thompson said the agency has a long-term goal to assume operations of Lawton, but that would require staffing numbers to improve at recently acquired prisons in Hinton and Holdenville. When the state took over operations at the Allen Gamble Correctional Facility from CoreCivic last October, dozens of staff members opted to stay with the private company while others did not pass a state background check.
“We just operate more efficiently and stricter than private facilities do,”Thompson said.“But to take on Lawton would be a massive strain on the agency.”
Shad Hagan is a Stillwaterbased justice reform advocate and a former case manager at the Dick Conner Correctional Center in Hominy. He said overnight cell checks should be done at least hourly because prisoners can create improvised devices to unlock their cell door and move around a housing unit.
But as Oklahoma’s prison system struggles to recruit and retain correctional staff, Hagan said routine security checks are becoming a more arduous task at some prisons. He said officers at rural prisons often have long commutes and regularly work 12-hour shifts, six days a week.
“You’re almost like a machine going from one spot to the next for several hours,” Hagan said. “You might be able to do it for a few days, but they’re not getting sleep, they’re not getting time with their families and they’re aggravated. It’s a very bad thing they didn’t do the count and it’s a very big issue, but you have to understand that.”