Three inmates at Lawton prison died after guards skipped checks and falsified records

Matthew Treat died of a fentanyl overdose on his cot in Oklahoma's last remaining private prison. When guards found his body, he had been dead for “a while” and a foul odor wafted from the cell, a prison employee later told an investigator.

Treat is one of three inmate deaths in 2023 at the Lawton Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility, where it was later discovered that guards had bypassed security checks and falsified records.

For-profit prison operator The Geo Group attempted to negotiate a $3 million raise to operate the Lawton prison earlier this year. The company has struggled with pay increases and staff shortages, and a lack of additional funding would “exacerbate our significant challenges,” The Geo Group said in a news release.

Although the company demanded a raise, records show it struggled to meet security standards at Lawton. Geo Group violated its contract with the state by not locking prisoners in their cells, failing to conduct security checks and leaving prisoners alone in cells without staff supervision, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said in a letter it sent the company in April. In May, the company responded, admitting that staff had falsified records in the three deaths, but it had fired the employees. The company said it was working to upgrade a prison camera system.

Geo Group did not respond to The Frontier's request for comment.

Treat's death went unnoticed while prison staff allowed unsupervised inmates to do laundry and distribute food trays to other men locked in their cells, an investigative report said.

Treat's mother, Debbie Hand, said she received a call in March 2023 from a prison nurse who “coldly” informed her of her son's death and asked if she wanted his belongings.

More: Oklahoma DOC extends contract with GEO Group to keep troubled Lawton prison open

“I just want people to know what kind of facility this is and what kind of people they employ that don't care about their loved ones,” Hand said. “They just treat them like they're nothing. And my child was more than a number.”

Lack of security checks may have been a factor in two more deaths at Lawton Prison

In the April letter, Oklahoma prison officials said poor oversight and security controls also contributed to two more deaths at the Lawton prison in 2023.

Loren Dean Tucker, 31, died in May 2023 after officers failed to conduct security checks. Two prisoners allegedly attacked Tucker in his cell around 9 p.m. on May 5, leaving him bleeding with stab wounds to his back and blunt force trauma to his head. Staff did not find Tucker until 2:40 a.m. the next day. The two prisoners accused of the attack now face first-degree manslaughter charges.

According to an investigative report, correctional officials allowed inmates to roam freely around the prison the night Tucker was killed, even though they were supposed to be locked up.

Lawton prison staff found Raymond Bailey's body under milk jugs in a gray trash can in October 2023. According to a coroner's report, he had been gagged, bound and stabbed multiple times. Surveillance cameras last showed Bailey entering a cell about 12 hours before prison staff learned of his death, according to an investigative report.

Ten Geo Group employees were laid off or resigned following the deaths in 2023, the April letter said.

Prison guards who falsify records can face criminal prosecution in Oklahoma. Pottawatomie County District Attorney Adam Panter said falsifying records falls under several laws. For correctional officers, falsifying records is a felony and can be punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to two years in prison.

The Ministry of Justice has not launched an investigation

The Department of Corrections is responsible for investigating possible crimes and forwards all reports to the local district attorney's office. But Comanche County District Attorney Kyle Cabelka said the department has not forwarded any investigations into the officers who falsified documents to his office.

Kay Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, did not respond in an interview to questions about why the department did not refer the cases against the officers to the district attorney for prosecution.

When The Geo Group asked Oklahoma for a $3 million raise this year, the cost of its contract to operate the Lawton prison would have risen to $51 million annually. The Department of Corrections said in a news release that Oklahoma had already given The Geo Group an additional $6.8 million over the past four years, but prison conditions had not improved.

Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed a bill that would have given Geo Group a raise, saying on social media that the prison was dangerous and that the company had not fixed the problems for several years. Following the veto, Geo Group sent a termination letter to the state in June, informing the company that it was terminating its contract to operate the prison in Lawton.

“After careful review of current funding levels and resources relative to current service requirements, we have concluded that we are no longer prepared to manage the 2,600-bed Lawton Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility without changes to financial and operational conditions,” the letter said.

Oklahoma does not have enough space to transfer the 2,600 men in Lawton to other prisons, a Department of Corrections spokesman said.

Corrections Department CEO Steven Harpe said at a board meeting in June that the Lawton prison is the most dangerous facility in the state. Additionally, the Lawton prison houses numerous prisoners with mental illnesses. Geo Group informed the corrections department in a letter in July 2023 that it had noticed an increase in the number of prisoners with moderate to severe mental illnesses, which had led to numerous self-harms. The letter said that the number of inmates at Lawton suffering from moderate or severe mental health issues increased from 878 to 919 in the past year.

The prison houses medium- and maximum-security prisoners. About 200 of Lawton's prisoners are in protective custody, including incarcerated police officers and inmates trying to leave gangs, according to the Department of Corrections.

The department could negotiate a one-year contract to reduce the number of inmates at Lawton and also pay the company a reduced fee. According to the most recent census, there are currently 2,375 inmates housed at the prison.

The department is expected to take over operations of the Lawton prison in 2025.

“There is new leadership at LCRF that will ensure the right changes are made and the current staff is prepared for the transition,” Thompson said. “We are confident this will help make LCRF a less violent prison now.”

Hand said she had always worried about Treat's well-being because the prison had a dangerous reputation among families and she wasn't sure a government takeover would end the violence.

Last October, the agency took over the Davis Correctional Center from CoreCivic, another private prison operator. Before the takeover, the prison was a regular site of stabbings and lockdowns due to understaffing. Thompson told The Frontier that violence has dropped significantly since the agency took over. Even after the takeover, the facility still struggled with staffing shortages.

Hand has three children. She described Treat, her firstborn, as a funny and caring man. She said the grief and shock of his sudden death makes her feel like she's just going to get on with her life. Treat served a 10-year prison sentence in 2021 for robbing a woman at gunpoint in Tulsa County.

Hand said she believed he would be safer behind bars because he had been involved in drugs and crime following the death of his grandmother in 2010. She said she thought her son would receive rehabilitation while in prison.

“This is not reform. I have prayed for so many years to get him off the streets, even to lock him up,” she said. “At least he will get something to eat and be taken care of. It's unbelievable how wrong I was.”

This article originally appeared in the Oklahoman: 3 dead in Lawton prison after guards skipped checks, falsified records