By Rhett Morgan
Tulsa World
TULSA, Okla. — At the Tulsa Jail, jobs can be as dangerous as the inmates. Tyler Brown can attest to that.
While escorting a prisoner to a cell Sept. 15, the detention officer was knocked to the floor, where he was kicked, kneed and punched before another inmate came to his aid.
For sustaining extensive injury in the line of duty, Brown received the Purple Heart Award on Thursday from the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.
“The kid wanted to come back to work that night and go back to the same housing unit he was in,” Undersheriff Tim Albin said. “I thought that showed a lot of heart.”
Brown was among the more than 50 people recognized Thursday at the Sheriff’s Office’s Employee Awards and Commendations Ceremony at the Tulsa Jail.
After his September attack, Brown tried to get the pod inmates to lock down.
He sustained a skull fracture, an inch-long gash over his left eye and swelling to his lips and face —- all this while being a week removed from the academy.
“We can’t compensate them really for the jobs that they do and the amount of risk that they manage,” Albin said of the Sheriff’s Office, which operates the Tulsa Jail. “We’re running a small city here on a daily basis. These employees that we recognized (Thursday) are the highlight of that.”
The Sheriff’s Office employs about 600 people, and detention officers make about $2,032 a month, Albin said.
“It’s tough for these guys,” he said. “Most of them work part-time jobs, but most of them are dedicated to what they’re doing. We’re so fortunate to have the caliber of employees that we have.”
Others honored Thursday included the county dive team that this week helped recover the body of a Claremore teen from an icy pond.
Four people received the Lifesaving Award: Deputies Brian Osman and James Morris and detention officers Jason Abel and April Mitchell.
While investigating a disturbance between neighbors Dec. 17, 2012, Osman stopped a gunshot victim from bleeding to death, applying pressure to the wound for 15 minutes until paramedics arrived, he said.
As Morris was preparing to pay and leave a Sand Springs restaurant in July, he noticed a middle-aged man was choking and could not speak. Morris performed the Heimlich maneuver, dislodging the blockage.
Abel thwarted an attempted inmate suicide in September, and Mitchell saved an inmate from choking on her breakfast in December 2012.
“Sometimes it’s good to recognize the folks who do exceedingly well in the things that they do,” Sheriff Stanley Glanz said of the awards ceremony. “The average deputy or detention officer works every day doing outstanding work. Sometimes we miss that.”