Oklahoma has long been plagued by issues within its prison system. While there has been significant progress in reducing the state's prison population by 21% since 2016, the harsh reality is that the policies written on paper do not yet translate to safety and accountability within the cellblocks. The statistics of contraband seizures reaching an astounding $18.5 million in 2025 alone and the troubling arrests of 14 ODOC staff members for smuggling the same year are a testament to the persistent and glaring issues within the system.

The personal stories of those affected make the crisis tangible. Inmates and their families continue to suffer in an environment rife with documented allegations of rape, extortion, and tragically preventable deaths. This state of affairs is not only appalling but unacceptable, especially when transparency, an essential element to accountability, is stifled by the department’s own resistance to releasing incident reports on inmate deaths.

This petition calls for immediate action to ensure the safety and protection of every individual within Oklahoma's correctional facilities. Prisons are intended to rehabilitate and reform individuals, not to expose them to an environment more perilous than life outside the walls. To this end, we propose actionable solutions:

1. Independent oversight body. Create an ombudsman's office or inspector general independent of the ODOC's chain of command , with subpoena power to investigate deaths, assaults, and staff misconduct, and legal mandate to make incident reports public as required under existing law.

2. Staff accountability and screening. Mandatory rotating audits, body cameras for correctional officers, and stronger pre-employment and ongoing screening to reduce staff-facilitated smuggling- which accounted for 14 of the 83 contraband related arrests in 2025.

3. Continuous body-worn cameras and audio, with independent 3rd party monitoring. Every correctional officer wears an active camera and microphone for the full duration of their shift on the floor. Cameras are stored in a secured cabinet only while an officer is in a restroom stall and must be reactivated immediately upon exiting. All footage and audio is monitored- in real time or near-real time by an independent third-part contractor selected through a competitive transparent bidding process, not ODOC's own staff, so officers know the feed is always being watched by someone outside of the chain of command. The contracted monitor must meet  defined data-security and chain-of-custody standards to prevent leaks or misuse of footage. Any camera or mic found off outside the designated restroom exception is treated as an intentional shutoff and grounds for termination, unless the officer logs an equipment-malfunction report within a fixed, short window (e.g. 5 minutes)- a safeguard that keeps the zero-tolerance standard enforceable without being struck down as arbitrary the first time hardware genuinely fails. An officer facing termination under this policy retains the right to a prompt internal appeal or grievance review before the termination is finalized, consistent with standard due-process and labor protections, so the policy can withstand a legal or union challenge rather than being struck down entirely. Footage is retained for a legally fixed minimum period not subject to agency discretion, and applies equally to any privately contracted facility. This directly targets a documented failure pattern : at Lawton Correctional center in 2023, officers falsified security check logs while a prisoner bled from stab wounds for over 5 hours before being found, and another prisoners body not discovered until it had begun decomposing. Funding: the cost of the third-party monitoring should be covered by redirecting revenue the state already extracts from incarcerated people through phone-call and commissary markups- reforms proposed i our companion petition of Reintegration& family support- rather than by new taxpayer appropriations. This preempts the states most predictable objection( lack of funding) by using money already flowing through the system to pay for the accountability measures that protect the same people generating it.  ( currently Phone Call Commissions: Under an amended contract with Securus Technologies, ODOC receives a flat "site access fee" (commission) of $312,500 per month, totaling $3.75 million annually directly from phone calls and In-Kind Kickbacks: Securus also provides ODOC with $2.2 million worth of in-kind security technology annually (such as call monitoring software and body scanners) as part of the phone agreement. Not to mention Tablet Revenues: ODOC brings in an additional $580,000 annually from Securus for tablet e-messaging, digital media rights, and gaming subscriptions. That's just on the phone systems alone.

4. Mandatory reporting and independent investigation of guard -facilitated harm. Any creditable allegation that staff enabled, ignored, or profited from violence, extortion, or sexual misconduct between or against inmates must trigger automatic referral to independent oversight body (demand 1), not an internal-only review. This responds to sworn testimony from former DOC psychologist alleging the agency mishandled and covered up rape allegations against guards at a women's facility, and to recurring family reports of guards allegedly permitting extortion in exchange for looking the other way.

5. Public, itemized annual death-in-custody reporting. ODOC must publish a full, itemized public accounting of every death in custody each year- cause, facility, whether it was ruled preventable, ad any resulting disciplinary or criminal action- covering state-run and privately contracted facilities alike. This is not a new ask so much as an enforcement demand :  incident reports are already public record under Oklahoma law, yet ODOC has moved to withhold them, including for private-prison deaths, prompting an ongoing public-records lawsuit. The public has a right to know how many people are dying in state custody and why.

Why this matters. Nobody benefits from coverups, falsified logs, or unchecked staff misconduct- not incarcerated people, not their families ,not corrections officers who do their job honestly, and not the taxpayers footing the bill for the lawsuits that follow when the abuse goes unaddressed. This petition asks for transparency and independent oversight, not leniency.

Safety and accountability can and must be achieved through collective and dedicated efforts. Let us stand together and urge the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to implement these necessary changes. By signing this petition, you are advocating for a safer and more transparent prison system in Oklahoma. Your support is crucial in bringing about the change that is long overdue. **Sign this petition** to demand that Oklahoma state officials prioritize the safety and well-being of every individual in their care. Together, we can transform these institutions into pillars of reform and hope. here are a just a few links that show whats going on inside our prisons..        https://okcfox.com/news/local/advocates-allege-oklahoma-inmate-faced-retaliation-after-raising-concerns​               https://oklahomavoice.com/2026/08/30/oklahoma-prison-inmates-operated-political-insurance-calls-centers-behind-bars/​           https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2026/jul/1/video-shows-guards-watched-as-oklahoma-detainee-died-in-cell/​         https://ktul.com/news/local/family-of-oklahoma-state-penitentiary-inmate-alleges-assaults-plans-protest-08-04-2026​    https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/crime/2026/07/08/oklahoma-inmate-darren-padron-accused-of-killing-second-cellmate/90797907007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=false&gca-epti=z117023p119250n00----l000450c00----e1176xxv117023&gca-ft=231&gca-ds=sophi​           https://kfor.com/news/local/odoc-investigates-oklahoma-state-penitentiary-inmate-death-in-mcalester/​      https://www.kten.com/features/kten-investigates-the-death-of-christopher-smith/article_99ee31a5-be41-4556-a2f4-65a932a9d156.html