Matthew Ware, 53, was a supervisor in Kay County, Oklahoma’s detention facility. Now he’s a federal prison inmate. Ware was sentenced to 46 months for prisoner abuse. ABC News provides details (see story here):
“Ware allegedly ordered lower-ranking correctional officers in May 2017 to move two Black pretrial detainees to a cell row housing white supremacist inmates whom Ware knew posed a danger to the detainees …. Ware gave officers an order to unlock the jail cells of the two Black detainees and those of the white supremacist inmates at the same time …. Ware’s orders led to an attack on the two Black detainees by the white supremacist inmates, resulting in physical injury to both ….”
Note the black victims were pretrial detainees, presumed innocent before trial, not people who’d been convicted of crime. But that’s not all; in 2018,
“Ware ordered lower-ranking officers to restrain a pretrial detainee in a stretched-out position, with the detainee’s left wrist cuffed to the far-left side of the bench and his right wrist cuffed to the far-right side of the bench. He was left restrained in this position for 90 minutes, which resulted in a physical injury … this was done in retaliation for the detainee sending Ware a note that critiqued how Ware ran the detention center.”
That prisoner also was a pretrial detainee. Ware was prosecuted by federal authorities because his actions violated the civil rights of the prisoners.