Inmate families protest as COVID-19 spreads in state prisons By: Keaton Ross Oklahoma Watch December 15, 2020
Diedre Adams holds a sign for her son during a protest outside the Department of Corrections’ Oklahoma City headquarters on Dec. 11. (Photo by Whitney Bryen/Oklahoma Watch)
An upset prison guard walked into Stephanie Avery’s housing unit.
Avery, a former Mabel Bassett Correctional Center inmate, says the officer pulled her mask below the chin, approached a group of women and shouted “I don’t care if you get sick.”
Weeks later, Avery and 112 other women housed at the prison tested positive for COVID-19 in mid-August. Though her symptoms were mild, Avery says a few women on her pod had trouble breathing and were hospitalized.