ACLU says transfer complaint symptom of widespread overcrowding problem
By Sarah Terry-Cobo
BridgeTower Media Newswires
OKLAHOMA CITY – Forrest Zudell is waiting to get transferred from a higher-security wing of a state prison, but he’s stuck.
The Lexington inmate filed a civil rights discrimination lawsuit, alleging he can’t get a transfer because there isn’t a lower-security incarceration center that can accommodate his medical disability. ACLU of Oklahoma Legal Director Brady Henderson said Zudell’s complaint is a symptom of a dangerous, more widespread prison overcrowding problem.
Zudell is suing the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Director Joe Allbaugh, Warden Jeorld Braggs, the prison’s population manager and his former case manager. He alleged the defendants violated his First, Fifth and 14th amendment rights, according to a nine-page, handwritten complaint filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.
He asked the court to order the Corrections Department to allow him to be transferred to community custody and receive 135 days per month of credit toward his sentence that’s afforded to inmates in lower-security centers. He wants to serve his time in community custody, then go to a halfway house where he can get a job and save money for his own residence once he’s released, according to the filing.
“There are hundreds, if not thousands of inmates eligible to go to lower security,” Zudell wrote.
If the agency would follow its own policy and allow inmates to transfer, that would relieve some of the overcrowding, he wrote.
“It’s not the inmates’ fault there are no bed spaces (available) for lower security,” he wrote.
The 64-year-old was transferred to Lexington’s Rex Thompson Minimum Security Unit in July 2015 for health reasons. Then he was issued a wheelchair, oxygen machine, cane, and walker. His health improved and he was released from using the walking aids by December 2016.
He was approved to move to a lower-security unit in February 2016. But as of April, he’s still limited on where he can stay: in a lower bunk on the ground floor. His work assignments must be sedentary. His case manager told him there were no beds available, according to the complaint.
Henderson said community custody centers around the state vary in layout, but it’s like a cross between a minimum-security prison and a halfway house. The environment is less rigid and there is often more interaction with people in the town or city. Community custody is an important part of the transition out of prison and to society.
“We see clear evidence, at every security level, we have gridlock,” Henderson said. “That’s a reflection the whole system is overcrowded.”
The entire state prison system was at 107 percent capacity and the community corrections level was at 101 percent capacity as of Aug. 14. The capacity can vary from week to week.
The bottlenecks have been apparent for several years, Henderson said. The incarceration rate has been rising and there haven’t been sufficient appropriations to match the increase.
In general, the agency struggles to meet inmates’ medical needs, particularly those that need specialized care, he said. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws have resulted in a high number of older inmates, many of whom have chronic health conditions.
Allbaugh and his wardens have warned the Board of Corrections and other politicians the potential danger that stems from widespread overcrowding. Henderson said the director is doing the right things, but he doesn’t have the money to improve the system.
“Allbaugh is not sitting idle; he’s going to the Legislature, to the governor, and to the board to say that they’re losing control of the system. It’s on the verge of collapse,” Henderson said. “That is (dangerous) for everyone; inmates, guards and the community.”
Corrections spokesman Mark Myers wrote in an email to The Journal Record that the agency’s legal department is aware of the lawsuit, but declined to comment.
A group of social justice activists filed a lawsuit last week against Allbaugh and others, alleging overcrowding violates inmates’ civil rights.
Henderson said he expects to see more lawsuits alleging civil rights violations against the state’s corrections agency in coming months.
“Everyone who is in the system, virtually everyone, anticipates that,” he said.
