A former Tulsa County juvenile detention officer is speaking out about what many claim is a systemic and cultural abuse problem at the Family Center for Juvenile Justice (FCJJ).
The allegations have prompted a civil lawsuit, two arrests, a federal investigation, and the emergency hiring of a new manager. However, there are still calls for a shutdown (by the criminal justice non-profit organization Appleseed and the Chief Public Defender for Tulsa County) because problems keep arising. Plus, many involved in the lawsuit are still employed there in upper-level positions.
Steven Powell wrote a letter to the FBI two years ago, claiming excessive confinement at the facility.
“They were not doing security checks on individuals locked in their cells,” he read from the letter.
He said supervisors asked him to falsify paperwork, and when he refused, the supervisor started initialing on work that he did not perform.
Powell said he was jumped one understaffed night, and administrators waited two hours to take him to the hospital. He said he was ordered to never fight back with residents and was beaten so severely he thought he would die.
Powell filed a lawsuit after that night. He settled out of court. And, while never proven, Powell believes the beating was a set-up by staff.
Why? Powell said it happened two days after he refused to falsify paperwork and that the residents liked him.
“They called me the best worker there because I cared about them and tried to treat them with dignity no matter what they did,” said Powell.
Three of them wrote apology letters.
“I feel bad for what I did you are one of the best and forgiving staff here,” wrote one resident. “As a grown man, you don’t deserve what we did.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Powell, if I could go back, I’d tell everyone to stop,” wrote another.
From 2019-2021, Powell said he worked in both the old facility on Gilcrease Museum Road and the new one downtown, which opened in 2020. Powell said the new facility did not do anything to improve the administration inside of it.
“Alondo Edwards, Doug Currington, Shaylonda Powell—they need to be gone, just straight out saying it, they need to be gone,” he said.
All three still work there despite being defendants in the civil lawsuit claiming they knew or committed abuse against dozens of residents for years.
Powell said he went to work there to make a difference but resigned due to a dangerous environment.
“I felt I wasn’t going to get anywhere through that system,” he said. “I felt the people above me were too corrupt.”
Powell believes improvements can be made with staffing changes because the current staff does not show compassion to the residents.
“I think it should be revised and it can be,” he said.
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