Do you own property in Comanche County? Are you flush with cash and ready to hand more of it over to the county? If you aren’t or just would rather not throw millions of dollars to the wind, your county commissioner needs to hear from you, now.
For weeks there has been a COVID-19 crisis brewing in the Comanche County Detention Center, a crisis that one official with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections described as “a direct result of gross incompetence.”
While COVID-19 is new to the detention center, problems there are not.
The center has been over capacity for at least five years and has been as far back as 2007.
While some within the county blame the judges for not arraigning people faster, others blame local police for arresting “everyone” for minor offenses.
It is clear that the coronavirus did not create a new crisis alone, but rather exposed one long in the making. Regardless of blame, this issue needs to be addressed – immediately.
“They’re prisoners, who cares?”
That is a line I have heard this week from too many, from politicians to elected officials and John Q. Public.
My response is that these are our brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers. While we punish them for their crimes and misdemeanors, they are still our loved ones.
Setting aside the United States Constitution, the Bible reminds us of the fact these people are human beings, someone’s family – and there is still reason to care about them.
A majority of these people haven’t been convicted of a crime and many of them are in jail for minor offenses.
Kory Dane Wilson. That is a name that we should all familiarize ourselves with.
Mr. Wilson was an inmate in the McClain County Jail. He died after being denied medical treatment.
His family agreed to a $750,000 settlement over his wrongful death. A death that could have been prevented. A life that could have been saved.
“Hopefully, this serves as a deterrent for jails around the state and the country,” stated John Branum, an attorney for the Wilson family.
Recently, an attorney from outside the Lawton-Oklahoma City area contacted the Ledger, seeking the names of potential clients and their stories.
He stated that he was looking for “a few model inmates” and the county would be looking at a major lawsuit. He explained a model inmate was someone who was not a habitual criminal and one that a jury would be sympathetic to. He went on to tell the Ledger if the county were negligent – and that still has to be proven – then each inmate should be entitled to somewhere around $25,000. “If they are innocent and they get sick, maybe they get more. If they die… well…”
The newspaper would like to tell you, our elected county officials and those whom they appoint are doing all they can to stop this fiasco, the deadly results and the yet untold financial calamity – but we can’t.
Bill Hobbs, the detention center administrator, has yet to respond to requests for information under the Oklahoma Open Records Act about conditions in the jail and the health and care of the inmates. He has denied our staff an interview and/or a tour of the facilities.
We explained that Ledger personnel would wear full bodysuits, gloves, masks, booties on shoes and sign a waiver stating we understand the risks and agree to not hold the County liable if we contract the coronavirus.
We ask you: If we wear all of that protective gear and we still aren’t safe, how can the County say that its staff and inmates at the Detention Center are safe?
Copies of our open records requests are printed in this paper for your review.
As associate publisher of the Southwest Ledger, I ask you to join us in demanding transparency and accountability in the Comanche County Detention Center before it is too late.
Before county residents are ordered by the courts to shell out millions of dollars to settle lawsuits, let’s all demand accountability.
We respectfully submit to you and all of our readers the following:
Mr. Hobbs should hold a press conference where members of Southwest Ledger, The Lawton Constitution, The Chronicle, The County Times, KSWO and any other media organization and interested parties may attend.
Mr. Hobbs should account for any steps he has taken to mitigate this crisis. He should document the supplies on hand to ensure the health of the Comanche County Detention Center staff and inmates during this epidemic and enforce the policies to prevent this from happening again.
If he is unable, or unwilling to do this, he should immediately resign his position as the jail administrator.
He is the administrator of one of Comanche County’s most expensive departments. To say nothing of the fact that he has the lives of more than 300 people in his hands, if he refuses to be accountable to the people, he is unfit for the office.