TULSA — After what is known in the world of corrections as a “matrix shakedown” occurred in July of 2023 at the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in Oklahoma, inmates began a letter-writing campaign to draw attention to what they characterized as deteriorating conditions in the prison.

Items which had been sold to inmates from the prison canteen were confiscated and thrown away, after a change in the rules which inmates say were never communicated to them.

[Hear Part Two of the KRMG In-Depth Series on the Oklahoma Department of Corrections HERE]

Recently, one of those letter-writers reached our KRMG reporter by telephone.

“They sold us blow dryers, and they sold us curling irons,” she said. “But then when we went in there to show them that we still had them, they took them from us, to tell us that we were no longer allowed to have them, according to matrix. The reason why? They changed our matrix without letting us know. So I don’t understand how you can sell somebody something, and then decide ‘oh, you know what? You can no longer have that. We’ll take that off your hands. That was done with clothes, and appliances.”

There are other shortages, she says, including a lack of proper food.

“They know how much to cook, they have recipes, they know how many people are here every day,” she said. “But even though they know how many, they still don’t have enough food prepared. And so we always joke, and say ‘man, we hope it’s not us being last, because we already know we’re not getting what those first people got. And that’s for every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

And then, there’s the shortage of opportunity.

“The classes and programs are so limited here, they really are,” she told KRMG. “when we have over a thousand women here and you have enough seats in a class for 20 people.”

And a number of recreational options have disappeared, including softball, a weight room, music rooms, all discontinued - apparently indefinitely - without explanation.

“We just want the word out, instead of squashed,” she told KRMG.

Her message?

“I was sentenced to go away. But once I’m away, I’m not sentenced to be punished by your staff. The staff members want to punish me; I’ve already been punished by being sentenced. So let’s not add insult to injury. Let’s let the inmates come that have been sentenced, let them come here and have an opportunity for redemption.”

You can read part one of this series, and hear the KRMG In-Depth version, HERE.

You can read part three of this series, and hear the KRMG In-Depth version, HERE.

KRMG has spoken at length with the Department of Corrections, and will have their response in Part Three of this series, which will go live on Wednesday.