Two former employees from a jail in Oklahoma in the US, along with their supervisor, face charges of misdemeanour cruelty after it was discovered that they forced inmates to into handcuffs and made them listen to “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong on repeat for hours. The former employees were charged on Monday, October 5.
At least four inmates have said that they were cuffed to a wall while being forced to listen to the song at top volume for hours on end. According to reports by The Oklahoman, separate incidences were reported in November and December 2019.
“It was unfortunate that I could not find a felony statute to fit this fact scenario,” Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said. “I would have preferred filing a felony on this behaviour.”
Two of the former employees stand accused of imposing the “discipline”, while their supervisor is accused of knowing it was going on, but doing nothing to stop it.
According to Sheriff P D Taylor, two employees resigned during an internal investigation while their supervisor retired. “We don’t tolerate it,” Taylor said of the mistreatment. “We always did an excellent job policing ourselves.”