What to know
- A series of deaths: Tulsa’s underground lockup can hold only 70 detainees, but has seen seven deaths in three years.
- No on-site medical care: The jail has accepted arrestees who are seriously mentally ill, dangerously intoxicated, or in need of medical attention — even after repeated warnings from city and jail staff.
- A new probe: In response to The Frontier’s investigation, Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols has called for a review of jail operations.
Brian Bonner was missing again. His mother spent months calling police departments across central Oklahoma — anywhere her 38-year-old son might have wandered.
Bonner was kind and gentle when he had his medication for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Carla Bonner said her son almost never missed church. But when a delayed appointment in the summer of 2024 left him without his prescription, he became restless and erratic.
“I woke up one morning and he was just gone,” she said. “That was part of his illness.”…