After seven deaths at Tulsa's privately-run Municipal Jail since 2023 and months of the city withholding death-investigation records, the Tulsa County DA referred the deaths to OSBI for independent investigation and Mayor Nichols announced the jail will close
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The Frontier documented seven deaths -- from overdoses, suicide, an untreated infection, and a restraint-related incident -- at the Allied Universal-run Tulsa Municipal Jail between 2023 and 2025, and reported the city withheld death-investigation reports, surveillance video, incident reports and jail policies from records requests, prompting the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to intervene on the outlet's behalf. On July 29, 2026, Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler asked the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to independently investigate the deaths after TPD's own homicide unit had cleared each case internally without forwarding any to his office; Mayor Monroe Nichols separately announced the jail will close.
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