Oklahoma State Penitentiary
Encyclopedia
The Oklahoma State Penitentiary (OSP) is located in McAlester
, Oklahoma
, on 1556 acres (6.3 km²). It is a prison of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections
. Opened in 1908 with 50 inmates in makeshift facilities, today the prison holds more than 1,200 male offenders, the vast majority of which are maximum-security inmates. OSP is also the site of Oklahoma's death row
for men and execution chamber
.
and Indian Territory
were sent to the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing
, Kansas
. At statehood, Kate Barnard
became Oklahoma Commissioner of Charities and Corrections
. During the summer of 1908, Barnard arrived unannounced at the Kansas prison to investigate widespread complaints she had received about mistreatment of Oklahoma inmates. She took a regular tour with other visitors first, then identified herself to prison officials and asked that she be allowed to conduct an inspection of the facility. Barnard discovered systematic, widespread torture
of inmates.
Upon her return to Oklahoma, Barnard recommended that all Oklahoma inmates be removed from the Lansing facility and returned to the state. Governor of Oklahoma
Charles N. Haskell
supported Barnard's proposal, and within two months of Barnard's visit to Kansas, on October 14, 1908, two groups of 50 offenders each were sent by train to McAlester. The inmates were temporarily housed in the former federal jail in the town. Under direction from Warden Robert W. Dick, they built a stockade to house themselves on a 120 acre (0.4856232 km²) plot northwest of McAlester, which was donated to the state by a group of McAlester citizens.
The remaining Oklahoma inmates in Lansing were moved to the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
until the state could build adequate facilities to house them all. The next spring, in 1909, the Oklahoma Legislature
appropriated $850,000 to build the permanent facility.
Construction began in May 1909 on a prison designed after the Leavenworth facility. The state purchased about 1556 acres (6.3 km²) surrounding the original plot of land. Using prison labor, the West Cellhouse and Administration Building were completed first; the Rotunda and East Cellhouse came later. The steep hills and grades required more than 6250 cubic yards (4,778.5 m³) of concrete and more than 2000000 cubic yards (1,529,109.7 m³) of rocks and soil were moved for the prison's walls alone. The F Cellhouse was added in 1935, and later the New Cellhouse was constructed. A shoe manufacturing plant and a tailor shop were part of the prison's inmate industry program, designed to provide work for offenders; at Lansing, prisoners were forced to work in the local mines, a practice Barnard banned.
Female prisoners were sent to Kansas in territorial days also. The first females brought back from Kansas stayed in a ward near the East Gate built in 1911. housed on the fourth floor of the West Cellhouse. The female population had grown to 26 by the time a separate building about 1 miles (1.6 km) west of the main institution was completed in 1926.
The first prison escape (from behind the walls) occurred on January 19, 1914. Three inmates stole a gun in the escape attempt, killed three prison employees and a federal judge. The convicts were later killed behind a rock ledge located on a ridge overlooking a wagon road.
On July 27, 1973, trouble began in the prison's mess hall, reportedly by five inmates who, according to a prison spokesman, "were doped up on something." It quickly spread through the rest of the facility. At the end of the riot, three days later, three inmates were dead, 12 buildings were burned, and 21 inmates and guards had been injured. Damage was estimated at $30 million.
A federal court in 1978 found conditions at OSP unconstitutional. The lawsuit, filed by one inmate before the riot, was changed to a class action suit after the riot. U.S. District Judge Luther Bohannon put the Department of Correction under federal control. The last issue of the lawsuit, medical care for offenders, was settled 27 years later, in 2001.
Consequent to the court's orders, four new housing units were built at OSP, and in 1984 the aging East and West Cellhouses were closed. In 1983, all female inmates were moved to Mabel Bassett Correctional Center
in Oklahoma City
.
On December 17, 1985, the inmates became disruptive, then gained control and took five employees as hostages on A and C units. Three of the hostages were seriously injured before their release the next day. The disturbance caused more than $375,000 in damage and two of the hostages were permanently disabled. After this incident, security was overhauled at the prison to reduce inmate movements, limit recreation, and institute a level-ranking system for offenders to improve safety.
The Talawanda Heights Minimum Security Unit was opened outside the East Gate Area in October 1989 to house inmates who hold support jobs inside the facility. In 1992, a special-care unit opened to provide mental health
care to offenders, reducing the need for psychiatric hospitalization outside the prison. A medium security unit with a capacity of 140 inmates is located on G and I units to help prisoners adjust to a lower security classification.
Another addition to the prison, H Unit houses inmates under both administrative and disciplinary segregation, Oklahoma's death row, and the state's lethal injection death chamber.
Between 1915 and 2009, Oklahoma has executed a total of 170 men and 3 women.
and during the 1970s inmate uprising, OSP has held a prison rodeo
. A two-day event held in August, or on Labor Day weekend (accounts differ), the rodeo is a joint venture between the city of McAlester
and the state Department of Corrections. The McAlester Chamber of Commerce contracts with the city to coordinate and market the event, which was not held in 2010 due to a state budget shortfall. Inmates from several prisons through the state compete. Attendance at the 12,500-seat arena is down in the 2000s from the 65,000 who routinely attended during a four-day version of the event in the 1960s. The animal-rights group PETA
has denounced the rodeo on grounds of animal cruelty.
Female convicts began competing in 2006, leading to the documentary
film
Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo (2009), about the co-ed competition.
McAlester, Oklahoma
McAlester is a city in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 17,783 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Pittsburg County. It is currently the largest city in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, followed by Durant....
, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, on 1556 acres (6.3 km²). It is a prison of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections
Oklahoma Department of Corrections
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is an agency of the state of Oklahoma. DOC is responsible for the administration of the state prison system. It has its headquarters in Oklahoma City, in the former Mabel Bassett Correctional Center building.The Department of Corrections is governed by the...
. Opened in 1908 with 50 inmates in makeshift facilities, today the prison holds more than 1,200 male offenders, the vast majority of which are maximum-security inmates. OSP is also the site of Oklahoma's death row
Death row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
for men and execution chamber
Execution chamber
An execution chamber, or death chamber, is a room or chamber in which a legal execution is carried out. Execution chambers are almost always inside the walls of a maximum-security prison, although not always at the same prison where the death row population is housed...
.
Construction and early years
Before Oklahoma became a state in 1907, felons convicted in Oklahoma TerritoryOklahoma Territory
The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as the State of Oklahoma.-Organization:Oklahoma Territory's...
and Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
were sent to the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing
Lansing, Kansas
Lansing is a city situated along the Missouri River in the eastern part of Leavenworth County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 11,265...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
. At statehood, Kate Barnard
Kate Barnard
Catherine Ann "Kate" Barnard was the first woman to be elected as a state official in Oklahoma, and the United States in 1907...
became Oklahoma Commissioner of Charities and Corrections
Oklahoma Commissioner of Charities and Corrections
The Oklahoma Commissioner of Charities and Corrections is a now defunct elective executive officer of the state of Oklahoma.The office was established by the Oklahoma Constitution in 1907. The office was disestablished by the constitutional amendment State Question 50 to the Constitution. It was...
. During the summer of 1908, Barnard arrived unannounced at the Kansas prison to investigate widespread complaints she had received about mistreatment of Oklahoma inmates. She took a regular tour with other visitors first, then identified herself to prison officials and asked that she be allowed to conduct an inspection of the facility. Barnard discovered systematic, widespread torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
of inmates.
Upon her return to Oklahoma, Barnard recommended that all Oklahoma inmates be removed from the Lansing facility and returned to the state. Governor of Oklahoma
Governor of Oklahoma
The governor of the state of Oklahoma is the head of state for the state of Oklahoma, United States. Under the Oklahoma Constitution, the governor is also the head of government, serving as the chief executive of the Oklahoma executive branch, of the government of Oklahoma...
Charles N. Haskell
Charles N. Haskell
Charles Nathaniel Haskell was an American lawyer, oilman, and statesman who served as the first Governor of Oklahoma. Haskell played a crucial role in drafting the Oklahoma Constitution as well as Oklahoma's statehood and admission into the United States as the 46th state in 1907...
supported Barnard's proposal, and within two months of Barnard's visit to Kansas, on October 14, 1908, two groups of 50 offenders each were sent by train to McAlester. The inmates were temporarily housed in the former federal jail in the town. Under direction from Warden Robert W. Dick, they built a stockade to house themselves on a 120 acre (0.4856232 km²) plot northwest of McAlester, which was donated to the state by a group of McAlester citizens.
The remaining Oklahoma inmates in Lansing were moved to the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
The United States Penitentiary , Leavenworth was the largest maximum security federal prison in the United States from 1903 until 2005. It became a medium security prison in 2005.It is located in Leavenworth, Kansas...
until the state could build adequate facilities to house them all. The next spring, in 1909, the Oklahoma Legislature
Oklahoma Legislature
The Legislature of the State of Oklahoma is the biennial meeting of the legislative branch of the government of Oklahoma. It is bicameral, comprising the Oklahoma House of Representatives and the Oklahoma Senate, with all members elected directly by the people. The House of Representatives has 101...
appropriated $850,000 to build the permanent facility.
Construction began in May 1909 on a prison designed after the Leavenworth facility. The state purchased about 1556 acres (6.3 km²) surrounding the original plot of land. Using prison labor, the West Cellhouse and Administration Building were completed first; the Rotunda and East Cellhouse came later. The steep hills and grades required more than 6250 cubic yards (4,778.5 m³) of concrete and more than 2000000 cubic yards (1,529,109.7 m³) of rocks and soil were moved for the prison's walls alone. The F Cellhouse was added in 1935, and later the New Cellhouse was constructed. A shoe manufacturing plant and a tailor shop were part of the prison's inmate industry program, designed to provide work for offenders; at Lansing, prisoners were forced to work in the local mines, a practice Barnard banned.
Female prisoners were sent to Kansas in territorial days also. The first females brought back from Kansas stayed in a ward near the East Gate built in 1911. housed on the fourth floor of the West Cellhouse. The female population had grown to 26 by the time a separate building about 1 miles (1.6 km) west of the main institution was completed in 1926.
The first prison escape (from behind the walls) occurred on January 19, 1914. Three inmates stole a gun in the escape attempt, killed three prison employees and a federal judge. The convicts were later killed behind a rock ledge located on a ridge overlooking a wagon road.
Riots and lawsuits
By the early 1970s, advocacy groups warned the state government that the situation was becoming dire.On July 27, 1973, trouble began in the prison's mess hall, reportedly by five inmates who, according to a prison spokesman, "were doped up on something." It quickly spread through the rest of the facility. At the end of the riot, three days later, three inmates were dead, 12 buildings were burned, and 21 inmates and guards had been injured. Damage was estimated at $30 million.
A federal court in 1978 found conditions at OSP unconstitutional. The lawsuit, filed by one inmate before the riot, was changed to a class action suit after the riot. U.S. District Judge Luther Bohannon put the Department of Correction under federal control. The last issue of the lawsuit, medical care for offenders, was settled 27 years later, in 2001.
Consequent to the court's orders, four new housing units were built at OSP, and in 1984 the aging East and West Cellhouses were closed. In 1983, all female inmates were moved to Mabel Bassett Correctional Center
Mabel Bassett Correctional Center
Mabel Bassett Correctional Center is an Oklahoma Department of Corrections prison for women located in unincorporated Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, near McLoud. The current Bassett facility opened in 1998....
in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
.
On December 17, 1985, the inmates became disruptive, then gained control and took five employees as hostages on A and C units. Three of the hostages were seriously injured before their release the next day. The disturbance caused more than $375,000 in damage and two of the hostages were permanently disabled. After this incident, security was overhauled at the prison to reduce inmate movements, limit recreation, and institute a level-ranking system for offenders to improve safety.
The Talawanda Heights Minimum Security Unit was opened outside the East Gate Area in October 1989 to house inmates who hold support jobs inside the facility. In 1992, a special-care unit opened to provide mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
care to offenders, reducing the need for psychiatric hospitalization outside the prison. A medium security unit with a capacity of 140 inmates is located on G and I units to help prisoners adjust to a lower security classification.
Another addition to the prison, H Unit houses inmates under both administrative and disciplinary segregation, Oklahoma's death row, and the state's lethal injection death chamber.
Between 1915 and 2009, Oklahoma has executed a total of 170 men and 3 women.
Prison rodeo
Since 1940, except for a handful of years during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and during the 1970s inmate uprising, OSP has held a prison rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
. A two-day event held in August, or on Labor Day weekend (accounts differ), the rodeo is a joint venture between the city of McAlester
McAlester, Oklahoma
McAlester is a city in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 17,783 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Pittsburg County. It is currently the largest city in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, followed by Durant....
and the state Department of Corrections. The McAlester Chamber of Commerce contracts with the city to coordinate and market the event, which was not held in 2010 due to a state budget shortfall. Inmates from several prisons through the state compete. Attendance at the 12,500-seat arena is down in the 2000s from the 65,000 who routinely attended during a four-day version of the event in the 1960s. The animal-rights group PETA
Peta
Peta can refer to:* peta-, an SI prefix denoting a factor of 1015* Peta, Greece, a town in Greece* Peta, the Pāli word for a Preta, or hungry ghost in Buddhism* Peta Wilson, an Australian actress and model* Peta Todd, English glamour model...
has denounced the rodeo on grounds of animal cruelty.
Female convicts began competing in 2006, leading to the documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo (2009), about the co-ed competition.