From left: Christopher Tignor, 29; Kyle Glen Tiffee, 23; Michael Mayden, 26; and Anthony Fulwilder, 31. All four died in a brawl at a private prison in Cushing.
Names of offenders killed at CCA's private prison in Cushing released
By Barbara Hoberock, Andrew Knittle and Graham Lee Brewer
The Tulsa World
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Department of Corrections on Monday released the names of four inmates killed during a weekend incident at the Cimarron Correctional Center in Cushing.
The private prison holds Oklahoma inmates and is operated by Corrections Corporation of America.
Listed as dead were Anthony A. Fulwilder, Kyle G. Tiffee, Michael E. Mayden Jr. and Christopher Tignor. The Oklahoman reported that the men were stabbed to death.
Fulwilder was serving time from Oklahoma County for crimes including robbery with a firearm and shooting with intent to kill. One of his tattoos, according to prison documents, is often affiliated with white pride or white separatist prison organizations.
Tiffee was serving time from LeFlore and Oklahoma counties for assault and battery on law enforcement and possession of a controlled dangerous substance.
Mayden was serving time from Oklahoma County for offenses including possession of a firearm after a felony conviction and possession of a stolen vehicle.
Tignor had convictions out of McClain, Cleveland and Oklahoma counties including concealing stolen property and burglary.
Three men — Jesse Hood, Cordell Johnson and Jared Cruce — remain hospitalized from injuries suffered in the brawl.
Hood, 31, of the Tulsa area, has a lengthy criminal record and was most recently convicted of assaulting a police officer in 2013, which earned him four years in prison. According to the prison system’s online records system, Hood has numerous tattoos, including a swastika on his chest.
Johnson, 24, was convicted of drug charges and domestic abuse by strangulation in Kay County in 2011. He was sentenced to 10 years behind bars when he was 20.
Cruce, 33, has been convicted in McClain and Oklahoma counties of drugs charges, several alcohol-related charges and assaulting a police officer. He was sentenced to 10 years in 2011.
All of the dead inmates and those sent to hospitals with injuries were white, records show. Prison officials did not answer questions Monday about whether race played a role in the inmates’ deaths and injuries.
According to officials, an “inmate-on-inmate altercation” broke out at 4:39 p.m. Saturday in a housing pod. The altercation lasted less than two minutes. Staff worked for 38 minutes to secure the housing area. No staff were injured.
The facility remains on lockdown during the investigation being conducted by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and CCA.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton was preparing for an execution on Wednesday and was not available for an interview to discuss his agency’s oversight of private prisons with which it contracts, said Terri Watkins, DOC spokeswoman.
Likewise, the contract monitor was not available for an interview, Watkins said.
The DOC referred questions to CCA, which did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Justin Mayden, older brother of victim Michael Mayden, told The Oklahoman that he’s been told by authorities “not to talk to anybody until the investigation is done.” However, he did post some details about his brother’s death on a GoFundMe page Sunday.
“My little brother was recently a bystander in a prison fight that tragically took his life,” Justin Mayden wrote on the fundraising website. “His family and friends are still at a loss of words why this happened and have yet to really get any answers. My brother was a loving father to a little boy and loved him more than anything in this world.”
A woman, Kathy Barber, spoke to a Tulsa-area TV station, claiming victim Anthony Fulwilder was targeted before his death. Barber said Fulwilder was her fiancé.
“I’m just literally devastated, and I miss him horribly right now. Just watching my phone hoping this is not real, and I know it is,” Barber told the station, adding that Barber had changed his life since he was locked up in 2003.
“He went from being a very bitter person to someone who was very loving and caring.”
The state has 5,904 inmates in medium- and maximum-security private prisons, Watkins said. Private prison expenditures between July 1, 2014, and June 1 of this year were $92,675,632, according to DOC.
Violence among inmates has resulted in multiple lockdowns at Cimarron since 2013.
In June, the facility went under lockdown after inmates from three housing units got into a fight that sent 11 of them to the hospital.
In March 2013, a unitwide fight involved inmates smashing windows, breaching security doors and being pepper-sprayed after making weapons from destroyed property.
Another incident at the prison in May 2013 involved 10 offenders and began when one of them hit an inmate who was eating lunch in the dining hall. Officers used more than a pound of pepper spray against the inmates after they refused orders to stop fighting.
The Tulsa World filed an open records request in June for copies of incident reports from state-run and private prisons in Oklahoma, including Cimarron Correctional Facility since July 2013. The request has not yet been fulfilled.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/capit...2ef135158.html
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