{"id":752540,"date":"2025-11-04T13:54:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/?p=752540"},"modified":"2025-11-04T13:54:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:54:27","slug":"long-story-short-former-corrections-director-approved-million-dollar-deal-with-ai-company-then-went-to-work-for-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2025\/11\/04\/long-story-short-former-corrections-director-approved-million-dollar-deal-with-ai-company-then-went-to-work-for-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Story Short: Former Corrections Director Approved Million Dollar Deal With AI Company, Then Went to Work For Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/soundcloud%253Atracks%253A2206423463&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true&#038;visual=true\"><\/iframe><div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/oklahoma-watch\" title=\"Oklahoma Watch\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\">Oklahoma Watch<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/oklahoma-watch\/former-corrections-director-approved-million-dollar-deal-with-ai-company-then-went-to-work-for-them\" title=\"Former Corrections Director Approved Million Dollar Deal With AI Company, Then Went to Work For Them\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\">Former Corrections Director Approved Million Dollar Deal With AI Company, Then Went to Work For Them<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Jake Ramsey went on a ride-along with the Oklahoma County Sheriff&#8217;s Department as the officer served evictions and talked about what he saw. Keaton Ross wrote about former Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Steven Harpe taking a job with a company for which he had approved a state contract in April. Ted Streuli hosts.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<div\n\t\tclass=\"wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles  wpnbha is-grid columns-3 colgap-3 show-image image-aligntop ts-2 is-3 is-landscape \"\n\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t<div data-posts data-current-post-id=\"752540\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-section-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>More long story short<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"754143\"\n\t\tclass=\"category-okwatch-podcasts series-long-story-short-podcast type-post post-has-image\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"post-thumbnail\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2025\/12\/30\/long-story-short-too-little-too-late-too-weak-critics-react-to-proposed-insurance-legislation\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TED_3242-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-newspack-article-block-landscape-large size-newspack-article-block-landscape-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Long Story Short: Too Little, Too Late, Too Weak: Critics React to Proposed Insurance Legislation\" data-hero-candidate=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TED_3242-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TED_3242-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TED_3242-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TED_3242-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TED_3242-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TED_3242-scaled.jpg?zoom=2&amp;resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 2400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TED_3242-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw \/ 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw \/ 12)), 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure><!-- .featured-image -->\n\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2025\/12\/30\/long-story-short-too-little-too-late-too-weak-critics-react-to-proposed-insurance-legislation\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Long Story Short: Too Little, Too Late, Too Weak: Critics React to Proposed Insurance Legislation<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2025-12-30T10:33:14-06:00\">December 30, 2025<\/time><time class=\"updated\" datetime=\"2025-12-30T10:33:16-06:00\">December 30, 2025<\/time>\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-meta -->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"754068\"\n\t\tclass=\"category-okwatch-podcasts series-long-story-short-podcast type-post post-has-image\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"post-thumbnail\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2025\/12\/26\/long-story-short-trailer-park-owner-hikes-rents-forces-tenants-into-rent-to-own-deals\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Hardesty-and-Oliver-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-newspack-article-block-landscape-large size-newspack-article-block-landscape-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Long Story Short: Trailer Park Owner Hikes Rents, Forces Tenants Into Rent-to-Own Deals\" data-hero-candidate=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Hardesty-and-Oliver-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Hardesty-and-Oliver-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Hardesty-and-Oliver-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Hardesty-and-Oliver-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Hardesty-and-Oliver-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Hardesty-and-Oliver-scaled.jpg?zoom=2&amp;resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 2400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Hardesty-and-Oliver-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw \/ 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw \/ 12)), 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure><!-- .featured-image -->\n\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2025\/12\/26\/long-story-short-trailer-park-owner-hikes-rents-forces-tenants-into-rent-to-own-deals\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Long Story Short: Trailer Park Owner Hikes Rents, Forces Tenants Into Rent-to-Own Deals<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2025-12-26T09:46:39-06:00\">December 26, 2025<\/time><time class=\"updated\" datetime=\"2025-12-26T09:46:58-06:00\">December 26, 2025<\/time>\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-meta -->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"753895\"\n\t\tclass=\"category-okwatch-podcasts series-long-story-short-podcast type-post post-has-image\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"post-thumbnail\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2025\/12\/17\/long-story-short-state-delays-push-data-center-developers-to-private-land\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-newspack-article-block-landscape-large size-newspack-article-block-landscape-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Long Story Short: State Delays Push Data Center Developers to Private Land\" data-hero-candidate=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1500&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2431-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw \/ 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw \/ 12)), 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure><!-- .featured-image -->\n\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2025\/12\/17\/long-story-short-state-delays-push-data-center-developers-to-private-land\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Long Story Short: State Delays Push Data Center Developers to Private Land<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2025-12-17T10:21:43-06:00\">December 17, 2025<\/time><time class=\"updated\" datetime=\"2025-12-17T10:23:23-06:00\">December 17, 2025<\/time>\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-meta -->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma Watch \u00b7 Former Corrections Director Approved Million Dollar Deal With AI Company, Then Went to Work For Them Jake Ramsey went on a ride-along with the Oklahoma County Sheriff&#8217;s Department as the officer served evictions and talked about what he saw. Keaton Ross wrote about former Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Steven Harpe taking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1503485,"featured_media":731688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"gigafact_has_fact_brief":false,"gigafact_remote_fact_brief_post_id":0,"gigafact_remote_sync_timestamp":"","gigafact_remote_sync_status":"","gigafact_remote_sync_response":"","gigafact_has_been_published":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"everlit_article_id":"","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"","everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"","_everlit_metadata_hash":"","_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"hidden","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[100,18],"tags":[19947],"series":[13941],"coauthors":[404],"class_list":["post-752540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-okwatch-podcasts","category-uncategorized","tag-stephen-harpe","series-long-story-short-podcast","entry"],"fact_brief":null,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Long Story Short: Former Corrections Director Approved Million Dollar Deal With AI Company, Then Went to Work For Them - Oklahoma Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2025\/11\/04\/long-story-short-former-corrections-director-approved-million-dollar-deal-with-ai-company-then-went-to-work-for-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Long Story Short: Former Corrections Director Approved Million Dollar Deal With AI Company, Then Went to Work For Them - Oklahoma Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Oklahoma Watch \u00b7 Former Corrections Director Approved Million Dollar Deal With AI Company, Then Went to Work For Them Jake Ramsey went on a ride-along with the Oklahoma County Sheriff&#8217;s Department as the officer served evictions and talked about what he saw. 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