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McAlester Water Outage: 2 DOC facilities enact contingency plans

Friday, November 03, 2017

MCALESTER -- A Friday water outage due to a broken city water line caused intermittent service at Oklahoma Department of Corrections' facilities Jackie Brannon Correctional Center and Oklahoma State Penitentiary. 

In response, the facilities' leadership enacted contingency plans to ensure staff and inmates can access potable water. Enough water has been obtained from the nearby city of Krebs and others in the area to last until tomorrow, and more is available if needed. 

"Our facilities have plans in place to handle any type of situation, and a water problem like this is one of them," said Matt Elliott, DOC spokesman. 

Staff have been distributing water to inmates for drinking and to flush toilets. Food preparation has not been significantly impacted. 

"This is something we're accustomed to handling at our facilities," Elliott said. "There should be no issues for our staff or inmates related to this outage - other than the inconvenience, and staff time spent getting and distributing water." 

DOC's Agri-Services Division operates a meat plant and dairy at JBCC, both of which had enough water Friday to complete their production. The meat plant has shut down for the weekend as it normally does. 

If the outage continues Saturday, Agri-Services will haul  water from nearby Stringtown to keep the dairy in operation. It runs 24-7, and requires water to complete its production and  cleaning. 

Built in 1908, OSP is home to 654 maximum-security inmates, including the state's Death Row. JBCC houses 727 minimum-security inmates. 

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