Accusations of a cover-up emerged during a hearing at the state Capitol on Monday as former employees with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections raised alarms about how the agency was handling complaints of prison guards having sex with inmates.
The Oklahoma House's Committee for Criminal Justice and Corrections explored numerous claims from Whitney Louis, a psychologist with 17 years of multi-state experience for correctional facilities. She argued Oklahoma's prison system was not properly investigating rape allegations involving guards at Eddie Warrior Correctional Center, a women's prison in Taft.
Several other witnesses were called in an attempt to provide further evidence of similar complaints during the hearing, which grew increasingly heated as corrections officials either disputed several of the claims or declined to speak about certain allegations due to ongoing lawsuits. But Rep. Justin Humphrey, the committee's chair, said the evidence presented during the hearing was too steep to ignore.
"I do have a basis for what I'm saying, I'm not just making these things up, and it's not just the doctor saying it," Humphrey told the corrections officials.
"I've got inmates coming out and saying it, I've got former employees coming out and saying it, (and) I have employees who say they're scared to come forward saying it, so it's multiple, multiple people. It's not one," Humphrey said. "And that's the point: Where should we take responsibility and say, 'OK, I'm going to...
A slew of NYPD officers recounted on Sunday horror stories from their careers in which they say they were falsely accused of sexual misconduct and, despite being exonerated, had the allegations sh...