A mother and her three children were rescued from their Oklahoma home by a group of prison inmates after a tornado devastated their community and stranded them inside for more than a week.
The unlikely heroes from Mack Alford Correctional Center in Atoka sprang into action Tuesday after the May 20 storm left the remote road leading to the family’s rural Pittsburg property littered with downed trees and debris, according to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
The 10-person crew, clad in their prison-orange jumpsuits and armed with chainsaws and heavy machinery, cleared the impassable road within 8 hours – a task local officials said would have taken several days.
“They just cleared a path to a house, and the lady hasn’t been out since last Monday,” Warden Margaret Green said in a statement.
“I just feel like it was giving back to the community. The inmates felt the same way. It’s an army of orange. This one little section we’ve been watching – I’m really proud.”
Green said the minimum-security offenders volunteered without hesitation after Pittsburg County officials issued a desperate plea for help on social media as local crews were stretched thin by the widespread cleanup efforts.
Only convicts who meet specific security and behavioral standards are allowed to participate in the prison’s community work programs – and are supervised at all times while out in public, officials said.
“I think they are a great help to us,” JB Sharp, a Pittsburg County road foreman, said.
“We are highly appreciative for them to come help us.”
The program, designed to support public infrastructure and community recovery efforts, also provides prisoners with meaningful opportunities to give back and rebuild their lives, prison officials said.
Inmate Brandon Boring, who is part of the prison’s clean-up crew, said that working with the community has given him a chance to atone for past mistakes.
“All a man needs to do is atone, and they’ve given us a chance to do that,” said Boring, 47, a recidivist who is serving a 20-year sentence for armed robbery, according to prison records.
“If you let a man atone, we can actually go back and be great members of society. If it gives back to the community, man, I love it.”
