Cimarron Correctional Facility is a medium security prison in
unincorporated Payne County, Oklahoma
Payne County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, its population was 81,646. Its county seat is Stillwater. The county was created in 1890 as part of Oklahoma Territory and is named for Capt. David L. Pa ...
, located southwest of the city of
Cushing. It is owned and operated by
CoreCivic
CoreCivic, Inc. formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas W. B ...
, formerly Corrections Corporation of America, under contract with the
United States Marshals Service
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The Marshals Service serves as the enforcement and security arm of the United States federal judi ...
.
The prison was built in 1997, and has a "contracted capacity"
for 1650 inmates. Currently, of that number, 1,470 are medium-security and 180 are maximum-security beds.
CCA has also imported prisoners for detention here. In March 2012, the
Puerto Rico Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
The Puerto Rico Department of Correction and Rehabilitation () is the law enforcement executive department of the government responsible for structuring, developing, and coordinating the public policies in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territo ...
agreed to send as many as 480 inmates to Cimarron, to alleviate overcrowded prisons on the island. The three-year contract was ended prematurely in June 2013 after unit-wide fights and "disruptive events", and the inmates were sent back to Puerto Rico.
In June 2015 a fight among inmates sent eleven of them to the hospital. The fight involved up to 300 people. In September 2015 another fight took the lives of four inmates, all stabbed to death, and left another three wounded. This was the worst such incident in state history.
On May 16, 2017, a guard deployed pepper spray on an inmate. Other inmates attacked the guard, and in the melee, an additional four guards were injured. All personnel involved required hospital treatment.
The prison was one of two operated by and four owned by CoreCivic in Oklahoma.
Due to reductions by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections in the number of inmates put in private prisons because of budgetary issues, CoreCivic announced closure of the facility in July 2020.
On February 25, 2025, a fight between 5 members of the Universal Aryan Brotherhood assaulted another detainee, which resulted in that detainee being stabbed and sent to a hospital in Tulsa for a punctured lung.
See also
*
Oklahoma Department of Corrections
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC or ODOC) is an government agency, agency of the state of Oklahoma. DOC is responsible for the administration of the List of Oklahoma state prisons, state prison system. It has its headquarters in Oklaho ...
References
External links
CoreCivic Cimarron Correctional Facility
Prisons in Oklahoma
Private prisons in the United States
Prison riots in the United States
Buildings and structures in Payne County, Oklahoma
CoreCivic
1997 establishments in Oklahoma
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