The Oklahoma Department of Corrections continues working to keep COVID-19 out of facilities. This includes finding innovative ways to protect staff, inmates and Oklahomans.
Basic guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and Oklahoma State Department of Health stress the importance of frequent hand-washing.
To help inmates follow that critical advice, ODOC is providing free bars of antibacterial soap.
This development is thanks to Keefe Group, a state vendor which has agreed to donate 25,000 bars of soap.
“I appreciate the cooperative and generous spirit of this donation by the Keefe Group,” ODOC Director Scott Crow said. “This national emergency is a time when we see the best in people. Keefe has risen to the occasion, boosting our efforts to protect the men and women in our custody.”
Each bar should last two weeks, on average. After those two weeks, ODOC will buy more bars as needed at a lower price set by Keefe. Previously, free soap was only available to inmates deemed “indigent” under the agency’s Offender Banking policy, OP-120230. The new bars will arrive in state facilities on Monday.
Staff will them distribute them to all state inmates, who can keep them in their cells or among their personal property. For additional information on how ODOC is keeping COVID-19 out of prisons, go to doc.ok.gov or follow agency social media on Twitter and Facebook. Also, the 24-hour ODOC COVID-19 Update Line – 405-425-2556 – has daily updated information on the pandemic and the agency’s response.
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