KRMG In Depth: Executive Director of Oklahoma Corrections Professionals says he’s being silenced

TULSA — This week, the Executive Director of Oklahoma Corrections Professionals (OCP) was removed as an administrator from the organization’s Facebook page, where he had done weekly livestreams detailing issues inside Oklahoma’s prisons for about a year.

Bobby Cleveland tells KRMG the stream had just picked up a lot more viewers, essentially doubling its numbers, after whistle blowers like Jason Lemons, a former Chief of Security at two state prisons, and others began joining the live stream.

[Hear the KRMG In Depth Report on the OCP and its executive director HERE]

“It’s interesting how they wanted to do this at this point in time,” Cleveland told KRMG. “Our video had gone from a thousand - and you can go look this up yourself - from a thousand views to two thousand views - over two thousand views - and our membership has increased.”

OCP’s membership is voluntary and costs a corrections employee $15 a month.

Cleveland says the organization’s role is to stand up for those employees whenever there’s a dispute between them and the DOC or the administration of a particular facility.

“We advocate for them if they get written up for an unreasonable reason, or they get terminated, we advocate for them,” he said. “We have an attorney on staff.”

As for the decision to ban his Facebook livestream, he told KRMG that apparently came from two board members, at the behest of the organization’s president, Scott Evenson.

But the decision was made without an actual meeting, Cleveland alleges, adding that he was not notified by the board or the president about that decision.

Jason Lemons, a former Chief of Security at two Oklahoma prisons and a highly-decorated officer, testified Wednesday in the Oklahoma House Committee on Criminal Justice and Corrections.

He said he believes the responsibility for trying to silence Cleveland lies inside the Department of Corrections.

“They’re trying to shut him down,” he told the committee. “He had to go to the board because his board, that oversees him, they work within the prison system. So, you know, they’re scared. So this man’s just out there trying to put up, and be the voice for the officers that need this voice. And now they’re trying to shut him down.”

[See the video of Wednesday’s hearing of the Oklahoma House Committee on Criminal Justice and Corrections HERE]

Cleveland told KRMG he will continue to try and be that voice for those he says fear for their careers if they speak out publicly.

“We’re saying it’s not safe in our prisons because they’re short of staff,” Cleveland said. “They have mismanaged this something terrible... Up there where Jason’s from, they may have six officers responsible for 1700 inmates.”

[Hear Part One of our series on Oklahoma prisons HERE]

[Hear Part Two of our series on Oklahoma prisons HERE]

[Hear Part Three of our series on Oklahoma prisons HERE]

[Hear Part Four of our series on Oklahoma prisons HERE]