12A ı SUNDAY JULY 28, 2013
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Current warden gives insight on OSP By JAMES BEATY SENIOR EDITOR
Oklahoma State Penitentiary Warden Anita Trammell first learned about the destructive 1973 riot at the prison by glancing out a car window. “I was barely a teenager,” Trammell said. She and her grandparents were headed down the Indian Nation Turnpike on July 27, 1973, to visit her parents who lived in the McAlester area. She still recalls looking out the car window and seeing thick smoke roiling upwards, resulting from fires set by rampaging inmates at the maximum-security prison in McAlester. “I remember seeing that black smoke billowing up,” Trammell recalled. She and her parents were more than curious; they were concerned. Trammell’s great-uncle, Jim Little, worked as a correctional officer at the facility. Her great-uncle made it through the riot without injury, said Trammell, recently named OSP’s first female warden. Although Trammell had been beginning her teen years when the OSP riot broke out, she later had a firsthand experience with a riot herself at the Mack Alford Correctional Center in Stringtown. Already embarked on her career with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Trammell served as a liaison providing information to the media during the riot at Stringtown. She and other DOC personnel spent long hours on the job during the 1988 outbreak at the facility. She didn’t mind though, saying she and others were running on adrenaline. Asked when she found time to sleep during the three-day riot at Mack Alford CC, Trammell indicated that wasn’t among her concerns at the time. “It’s different,” she said. “You wanted to be there for your fellow officers who were held hostage.” All of the eight hostages at Mack Alford were eventually released, but the rioting inmates destroyed approximately $7 million in state property. Now, with this weekend marking 40 years since the OSP riot
occurred, Trammell has been reviewing reports of the 1973 outbreak at the prison where she now serves as warden. When looking at lessons learned from the riot, Trammell notes that the prison in McAlester had been significantly overcrowded before the riot broke out. “I’m glad a lot of things have changed,” she said. Those changes include more security levels and precautionary measures that are taken daily, said the warden. As for what she considers the chief cause of the 1973 riot, Trammell agrees with conclusions reached by pervious studies — as well as many of those who were on the scene at the time. “I look at the capacity,” she said. When the 1973 riot erupted, approximately 2,200 inmates were jammed into OSP. “The capacity was 1,100,” Trammel said, adding that overcrowding had definitely been an issue. Although the prison has been overcrowded since the 1973 riot, it’s never been overcrowded to that extent, according to the DOC. “I think the department as a whole has come a long way,” Trammel said. “They had an open yard; they had offenders out working. “They had as lot of work crews,” Trammell said, referring to the situation at OSP in 1973. Although offenders were working both outside and inside at OSP last week, prison officials said they were from the adjacent minimum-security Jackie Brannon Correctional Center. Now, most OSP inmates are kept on 23-hour lock-down in their cells. Most are still allowed some exercise outside their cells, but in much smaller groups — not the hundreds of inmates who might have been outside in the prison yard at one time prior to the 1973 riot. The 23-hour lock-down rule came about as a result of a 1985 outbreak at the prison in which three correctional officers were seriously injured and seven were held hostage by inmates. Several of the officers later tes-
Staff photo by JAMES BEATY
Oklahoma State Penitentiary Warden Anita Trammell, shown in her office at OSP on Wednesday, believes steps now in place, ranging from enhanced security measures to technology — such as the screen to her right which allowed her to keep an eye on the entrance to the administration area Wednesday — make it unlikely that a riot similar to the one that left the prison devastated in 1973 could occur today. tified at a trial in Pittsburg County District Court that some of the inmates holding them were actually protecting them from other rampaging offenders. That resulted in the acquittal by Pittsburg County jurors of some of the inmates on charges filed in connection with the 1985 outbreak. Now, when offenders at OSP are brought out of a cell, they are typically secured, according to Trammell. Warden’s Assistant Terry Crenshaw agreed there have been a lot of changes through the years. “In ’73, it was a lot different,” Crenshaw said. In the years following the riot, housing units were developed with multiple quads, or sections, so if one quad fell to inmates, the others should still be secure. All of the doors to the cells in the quads are electronically controlled by correctional officers in a central location in the units, in areas designed to be secure from inmates. Other changes have also occurred at OSP through the years following the riot. “We’re supplying offenders with due process and trying to meet the basic needs of the offenders,” Trammell said.
She said OSP also works to meet the nutritional needs of the offenders. Nutritional needs? “One of the issues was about food,” Trammell said, referring to the 1973 riot. Trammell doesn’t think it likely a riot could occur at the prison today similar to the one that occurred in 1973. Why? “Because we would have to have a significant breach in security,” she said. With all of the security provisions now in place at OSP, Trammell said she doesn’t see a situation where that would occur. Crenshaw said today’s correctional officers are also more professional. Trammell noted that the DOC has had a training academy now for a number of years. “When a new officer is hired, they have to go through it for a week,” she said. In the years following the riot, OSP and other facilities developed Correctional Emergency Response Teams, called CERT teams, similar to what is known as a SWAT team on the street. They can be used during forcible cell entries when an inmate is resisting orders from officers. Shakedowns, or searches of
inmates and their cells, are now held more often, according to Trammell. OSP currently has 221 correctional officers employed, as well as 67 support staff members, along with 25 medical staff, according to numbers provided by Trammell and Crenshaw on Wednesday. The inmate count was down to 574 inmates on Wednesday, following the recent transfer of some inmates to private prisons. Following the transfers, some employees at the facility have been concerned there may be a plan under way to eventually close the facility. Trammell said she’s aware of no such plan and she doesn’t think that will happen. What about a reduction in force related to the recent transfer of inmates to private prisons? The warden said more officers are currently needed at OSP, not fewer. OSP has been understaffed for some time, according to its approved staffing levels. “We just promoted 19 officers to sergeant and five to lieutenant,” Trammell said. “We’ll be able to fill those positions. “We have openings right now.” Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.