Man Killed After He Is BeatenFirst Testimony Is Next Month
Following the release of a scathing report on numerous civil rights violations alleged to exist at the Oklahoma County Jail, the Black Chronicle has learned that a federal grand jury will begin next month to hear testimony on the death of an inmate.
Starting Sept. 9, the grand jury will begin looking into the death of the inmate who went into a coma shortly after struggling with guards.
A witness has been subpoenaed to testify on Sept. 9, according to court records.
Christopher Beckman, 34, of Choctaw, died on May 28, 2007, two days after the jail struggle.
The struggle with guards began after the inmate began to have seizures, it is said.
An autopsy found that Mr. Beckman died from blunt force head trauma that was severe enough to cause brain swelling.
“After extensive investigation,” the medical examiner wrote, “no consistent and reasonable explanation for the decedent’s injuries has been proposed.”
“the manner of death is considered homicide,” the medical examiner continued.
“My only hope is that we arrive at the truth about what did or did not happen,” Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel said after being informed about the grand jury.
The sheriff, who has supervision over the jail, has been criticized for problems for most of the time since his election.
Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Rhinehart (District II) has been particularly critical of the sheriff, blasting him during a recent campaign for concentrating on buying “toys” for the sheriff’s officers.
Others have criticized the sheriff for exacerbating the over-crowding at the jail by taking money from the federal prison system to temporarily house federal inmates.
Sheriff Whetsel asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to look into the Beckman death.
The report issued by the Department of Justice a few days ago, it was said that “certain conditions at the jail violate the constitutional rights of detainees.”
About 160 federal inmates were removed from the Oklahoma County Jail after the release of the Department of Justice report.
Among the highlights of the federal investigation report, it was said:
The jail houses more than 2,500 inmates, which is nearly double its rated capacity.
The facility has insufficient bed space for the jail population, forcing inmates to sleep on the floor, with three to four of them housed in cells designed for two.
Because of the construction of the jail, “adequate sight and sound supervision of detainees [is] extremely difficult.”
Actual direct supervision of inmates “is virtually non-existent.”
“Grossly unsanitary conditions” and “increased violence among detainees” are a result of the overcrowded conditions.
Duties of jail officers are so broad, they “have little time to actually monitor detainees.”
There’s “an inordinately high risk of detainee-on-detainee violence at the jail.”
Over a two-month period in 2007, the jail had about 70 inmate-on-inmate assaults, with some of them resulting in death and/or serious injuries.
The report said, from July 2005 to Oct. 2006, four deaths at the jail were the result of inmate-on-inmate assaults.
One of them was an inmate who died after a fight over commissary items.
Inmates are allowed to keep in their cells large amounts of foodstuffs, etc., which they barter.
Another death occurred when, in May 2006, an inmate, essentially, beat to death his cellmate.
The fight occurred in the dayroom area.
A report said the alleged assailant was “observed bragging about how he beat the crap out of” the victim.
“The victim had a history of mental health issues,” the report said. “The alleged assailant had a violent criminal history and had reportedly complained about the victim’s behavior before the beating.”
“After this incident, the assailant had yet another altercation in his cell with another detainee,” the Department of Justice report said.”
The report said, there is no evidence that jail officials conducted any kind of review of circumstances that led to the deaths in order to, hopefully, prevent their reoccurrence.
Another inmate died in Nov. 2006, the report said, from injuries sustained in an assault the month before, which began over a breakfast tray.
In July 2005, while in a shared cell, an inmate assaulted another inmate “in a horrific and brutal” manner.
After the victim complained of a seizure to jail officers, but died of cardiac arrest before arriving at a hospital.
There is inadequate disciplinary and classification processes at the jail.
There are deficient suicide prevention policies.
There is inadequate investigation of serious events at the jail.
There are inadequate health care services, inadequate access to medical care, inadequate mental health care and inadequate treatment and management of communicable disease.
There is deficient housing, sanitation and environmental protections.
The jail facility is maintained poorly.
There are dangerous life and fire safety deficiencies.
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