High-Ranking Prison Officer Aided a Neo-Nazi Gang Attack on Black Prisoners

A former high-ranking correctional officer at an Oklahoma prison just received a multi-year prison sentence for facilitating a white supremacist attack on Black inmates. 

Matthew Ware, 53, a former lieutenant at the Kay County Detention Center, was sentenced to 46 months after being found guilty of violating the civil rights of three pretrial detainees, the Department of Justice announced on Monday. 

In 2017, Ware, who was responsible for the day-to-day oversight of the prison, ordered correctional officers to move several Black pretrial detainees to a row of jail cells that contained white supremacists who belonged to the United Aryan Brotherhood, a neo-Nazi prison gang. It was known that this particular cell row housed neo-Nazis and Black prisoners weren’t to be assigned there.  

After the Black detainees were moved to the new cell row, Ware then ordered his underlings to unlock the doors to the cells containing the white supremacists at the same time as the cells containing the Black detainees. 

“Several of the (correctional officers) who were present protested this order, telling Mr. Ware that, if he maintained this order, it would likely lead to violence,” reads the court documents. “Mr. Ware responded to his staff’s concerns of violence by saying that the inmates were adults and that ‘if they want to act like animals, they would be treated like animals.’”

The order was followed and both of the Black detainees were released at the same time as the neo-Nazis. Within minutes the two detainees were jumped by the white supremacists and suffered injuries, including a facial laceration. The court documents say that Ware immediately denied giving the order and blamed it on those underneath him.  

According to court documents, correctional officers, detainees, and inmates all said that “Ware ran the jail through fear, intimidation, and obsessive control.” One of the punishments he routinely handed out was being “stretched out"—a term Ware had for handcuffing prisoners on each hand so their arms are stretched almost like they are on a crucifix. Ware's third conviction was due to this practice. In 2018, two inmates wrote Ware a note that critiqued his running of the detention center and advised him to “hand in his cheap badge.” 

“Inside the control room, Mr. Ware read (the prisoner’s) note out loud. After reading the note, Mr. Ware, in a sarcastic voice, ordered correctional officers to go make (the prisoner) ‘comfortable,’” the court documents said. 

Ware’s underlings took one of the prisoners and “restrained him on the bench by handcuffing (the prisoner’s) left wrist to the far-left side of the bench and (the prisoner’s) right wrist to the far-right side of the bench.” The prisoner was left for 90 minutes and it resulted in injury. 

“If we don’t hold our very own law enforcement officials accountable, those sworn to protect and serve, what hope will the American people have? Mr. Ware’s actions were impermissible and undignified, particularly given his leadership role,” said Special Agent in Charge Ed Gray of the FBI Oklahoma City Field Office. “His conviction is a prompt reminder that no one is above the law.”

According to court documents, Ware was a former Marine who was honourably discharged after two years when he was shot in the knee. Ware was fired from the prison in 2018, at the time of his firing he had reached the position of captain, making him second-in-charge at the jail. He was initially found guilty in April and will begin his sentence immediately.