Death, Illness, and Notification in Oklahoma Prisons

There are two directions a death or a serious illness can travel through a prison wall, and a family usually only thinks about it when it is already happening.

One direction is from the outside in. Someone in the family is dying or has died, and you need the prison to tell your incarcerated person, and you are wondering whether they can be there for it. The other direction is from the inside out. Your person is the one who is sick, or who has died in custody, and you are trying to find out what happened and what you are allowed to do. This article walks both directions for Oklahoma, run by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

I am going to tell you something up front, because I learned it the hard way and I do not want it to land on you cold. An approval that has been granted is not the same as your person being there. Those are two different things, and the gap between them is where families get hurt.

When the Death or Illness Is on the Outside

If someone in the family is gravely ill or has died and you want your incarcerated person notified, the channel is the facility, usually through the inmate's case manager or the chaplain. Call the institution, explain the emergency, and be ready to provide verification, such as the funeral home's information or a death certificate for a death, or a hospital or physician confirmation for a serious illness. If you do not know who the case manager is, call the facility and ask for the records officer, who can connect you.

Notification is the part that tends to work. Whether your person can leave the prison to be there is a separate and much harder question.

Attending a Funeral or a Bedside Visit in Oklahoma

Oklahoma has a written escorted emergency leave procedure, and the eligibility rule here is strict and specific, so read it as the reality.

Minimum security or below only. Escorted emergency leave to visit the bedside of a critically ill family member, or to attend a viewing of the body or a funeral, is available only to inmates at minimum security or below who meet the eligibility criteria in the Department's procedure. If your person is at medium or maximum security, an escorted funeral or bedside trip is generally not available, which is hard but important to know up front.

Who counts as family. For this purpose, family is defined as the spouse, natural parents, children including stepchildren and adopted children, and, with acceptable documentation, anyone who served in a parental role. Extended family is defined as grandparents and siblings. The case manager determines eligibility and submits the paperwork.

No visit to a residence. Oklahoma's procedure prohibits a visit to a residence in connection with funeral services. The trip is to the bedside, the viewing, or the funeral itself, not to a family home.

It is escorted and discretionary. Expect a guarded trip under staff supervision, with the visit limited to a short period, and approval is never guaranteed.

Now the part I promised you.

I was told I had a five-hour furlough to attend my mother's funeral. I was told to get dressed and wait for the escort. I got dressed. I waited. The escort never came. Word going around was that the warden had been moved or was on leave, and the assistant warden denied it. Nobody walked up to me with a form. The day just passed. What I got, in the end, was a free phone call.

I tell you that not to make you bitter before you start, but to make you smart. An approval that exists on paper is not a person standing at a graveside. Administrators change. Acting wardens reverse decisions. Escort details fall through. If you are pinning the family's grief on the hope that they will physically be there, you are building on sand. Plan the service around the family that can be there. If your person makes it, that is a mercy. If they do not, you were not depending on it, and the grief is heavy enough without that.

Ask about a phone call at minimum. Even when a trip is denied or your person is above minimum security, the facility can usually allow a call, and the chaplain can help. Ask directly, and ask early.

When the Illness or Death Is on the Inside

The other direction is harder, because you have less control and the information comes slower.

If your person is seriously ill in custody. Oklahoma is explicit that an inmate's medical status is confidential and will be provided only if the inmate signs a Consent to Release Medical Information form, available from medical staff, naming a specific person. So the single most useful step is to have your person sign that form naming you. Once that is done, the correctional health services administrator at the facility can be contacted for updates on your person's condition. If your person is terminally ill, ask also about the Department's palliative care program. And if the condition is terminal or grave, learn about Oklahoma's medical parole now, not later.

Oklahoma medical parole. Oklahoma has a medical parole process, sometimes called compassionate parole, decided by the Pardon and Parole Board. The Department's medical director can certify that an inmate is dying, near death, medically frail, or medically vulnerable, or that the inmate's medical condition has rendered them no longer an unreasonable threat to public safety. When that certification is made, the Executive Director of the Board places the inmate on the first available parole docket for compassionate consideration, and these cases skip the usual two-stage hearing process, which is meant to move them faster. The Board still has to concur, and like other Oklahoma parole decisions, the Board's recommendation goes to the Governor.

What families can do here. Because the process turns on the medical director's certification, the most useful thing you can do is push the medical side. Make sure the prison's medical staff and the chief medical officer know about the diagnosis and prognosis, ask in writing that your person be evaluated for medical parole, and ask that the case be certified and placed on the docket. Document everything, and consider an attorney. Begin lining up where your person would live and receive care, since a workable plan helps. Start early, because the steps take time and a terminal illness does not wait.

If your person dies in custody. The Department notifies the family using the emergency contact your person has on record, which is exactly why that contact must be correct now. Make sure the listed person is reachable and will tell the rest of the family.

The medical examiner, and the autopsy. Oklahoma has a statewide Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and a death in custody is one it investigates. The Department itself has said that the manner of death is released once the final report is received from the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and that this can take several months. So expect that the official cause and manner of death come from the medical examiner, not from the prison, and expect it to take time. This also means a prison death is examined by an independent statewide forensic authority rather than being decided inside the prison.

Getting answers, and claiming the body. To get the cause and manner of death and any autopsy report, you contact the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and you should be prepared for a wait of months for the final report. The body is released to the next of kin, generally through a funeral home, once the medical examiner's work allows. Make your intention to claim your person known promptly, and be clear about who the legal next of kin is, because disputes between family members slow everything down. The death certificate is available through Oklahoma vital records. If the family cannot afford a funeral, ask the funeral home and the county about assistance.

What Families Can Do Before a Crisis

Most of the pain in these situations comes from decisions that were never made in calm times. A few things you can do now, while no one is dying:

Make sure your person has the correct emergency contact and next of kin recorded with the Department, and keep it current. This determines who the prison calls.

Have your person sign the Consent to Release Medical Information form naming you, because in Oklahoma that is what unlocks any medical updates from the health services administrator.

Learn your person's security level, because escorted funeral and bedside leave is limited to minimum security or below, so you will know in advance whether an in-person trip is even possible.

If your person has a terminal or grave condition, do not wait. Ask in writing that your person be evaluated for medical parole and that the medical director certify and docket the case, document the diagnosis, and consider an attorney.

Keep the funeral home's contact information ready, both to verify an outside death so your person can be notified, and to claim your person if they die inside.

State Resources

Oklahoma Department of Corrections: contact the institution and your person's case manager directly; use the ODOC website and offender lookup for facility and contact information.

Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board: for medical or compassionate parole of a dying, medically frail, or medically vulnerable inmate.

Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner: for the cause and manner of death and the autopsy report.

Oklahoma State Department of Health, Vital Records: for certified copies of the death certificate.

Oklahoma 211: dial 2-1-1 for grief support, funeral assistance resources, and counseling referrals.