Looky here, looky here: an officer who abused his power over detainees just to get locked up himself. Former Oklahoma jail supervisor Matthew Ware was sentenced by a federal grand jury in setting up an attack on Black inmates, per The Kansas City Star. Ware purposely placed the detainees in the cell row housing white supremacist inmates.
Ware’s sleazy scheme occurred back in May 2017, the report says. Court documents say he ordered correctional officers to move the two Black inmates into the cell row that housed inmates he knew “posed a danger.” Ware then ordered the CO’s to unlock their cells at the same time the following morning. As a result, the white inmates violently attacked the two. In another instance, Ware ordered the obscure restraint of another detainee, having him “stretched out” and handcuffed by his wrists to either end of a bench for over an hour.
Ware’s actions were found to be an abuse of his position of power and violation of their civil rights (or cruel and unusual, might I add), per a press release from the Department of Justice.
Read more on Ware’s federal conviction from the DOJ:
A former supervisory correctional officer at the Kay County Detention Center (KCDC) was sentenced today to 46 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for violating the civil rights of three pretrial detainees held at the KCDC.
On April 15, 2022, a federal jury convicted Matthew Ware, 53, of willfully depriving two pretrial detainees of their right to be free from a correctional officer’s deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm and of willfully depriving a third pretrial detainee of the right to be free from a correctional officer’s use of excessive force.
“A jury found that Mr. Ware abused his position of power over the individuals in his custody,” said U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester for the Western District of Oklahoma. “Today’s sentence holds him accountable for that conduct. Mr. Ware violated the laws he was sworn to uphold, betrayed the public trust, and dishonored the many brave corrections officials who lawfully perform their important work each day. My office remains committed to protecting the civil rights of all Oklahomans, including those in custody.”
When we see corrections officers abuse detainees or inmates, it makes one wonder why they chose the job in the first place. Maybe, it was so they could get away with criminal behavior without having to put on the jumpsuit.
Fortunately, Ware will never be allowed to wear a law enforcement uniform again.