JAIL WARDEN IGNORES REHAB, EX-STAFFER SAYS

Debrah Cartwright said she thought it was wonderful when her boss asked her
to put together a sales pitch to encourage area judges to start ordering
people into the Tulsa Jail's drug addiction treatment program.

But Cartwright said that was before Warden Jim Cooke told her they weren't
really going to offer what they were proposing, nor was he going to provide
any additional counselor training. Corrections Corporation of America, the
private company that operates the jail, simply needed the revenue, she said
she was told.

"I asked him if he was asking me to create a sales pitch for all these
facets of the program when he had no intention of following through, and he
said treatment was not our focus at that time, filling up beds was,"
Cartwright said. "He said that right now we need to generate some income."

Cartwright, who was CCA's addictions treatment manager, said she resigned
April 24 because she felt it would have been unethical to promote a drug
treatment program that the jail had no real intention of offering.

CCA spokesman Chris Howard said that Cooke wouldn't comment on Cartwright's
charges, but that CCA is "restructuring" its current addictions treatment
program.

Offering treatment programs is required by CCA's contract to operate the
jail, but specifics on what those programs must be are not laid out.

Addictions treatment at the jail is currently a voluntary program inmates
may opt for when they are serious about overcoming a drug problem,
Cartwright said.

But during her year and a half at the jail, Cartwright said she saw the
program chipped away.

"We were a dog and pony show. My role turned into . . . PR. He wanted the
program so he could tell everybody we had it," Cartwright said.

Participants normally underwent 11 hours a day in the program, but
currently the women in the dorm-like setting of the drug treatment pod are
working nine of those 11 hours in the kitchen, she said.

"He's made it mandatory they go to the kitchen to cook," she said. "If
they're not willing to work in the kitchen, he puts them in 23-hour lock-down."

While they are in the kitchen cooking, Cartwright said her former
counselors are working in the pods as counselors, handing out clothing and
sheets and serving meals.

The male pod for addiction treatment is closed, and men in the addiction
program attend a class for one hour a day, she said.

Howard confirmed that the male pod is currently empty.

Cartwright said both Cooke and previous warden Tim Baltz would place
maximum-security female inmates, who weren't seriously interested in
overcoming their addiction, in the dorm-like setting with those who were
there voluntarily for treatment.

Cartwright transferred to the Tulsa Jail from CCA's Davis Correctional
Facility in Holdenville, where she started in 1997. She said she was coming
forward to speak about conditions at the jail because she thought it was
important to talk about why she left.

"If anyone can make a difference, I just want to be part of it. I do care
about the community. I do believe what we teach those people and that it
works," she said. "I don't think the people of this state want people
coming out worse than when they came in."

Cartwright said her reports indicating the male drug treatment pod had been
closed never reached CCA's corporate offices in Nashville.

A corporate spokesman in Nashville said he was unaware of Cartwright's reports.

Cartwright said Cooke's focus is on discipline and he runs the treatment
programs "like a boot camp. He looks at addiction from what I gather as
something that willpower will fix and it's not that simple."