Visitors returning as COVID-19 cases decline in state prisons By: Keaton Ross Oklahoma Watch May 11, 2021 Inmates gather in a common area outside of their cells at Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington. (Photo by Whitney Bryen/Oklahoma Watch) Visitors are coming back to state prisons and reuniting with loved ones, in many cases for the first time in more than a year, as COVID-19 cases in Oklahoma’s corrections system steadily decline. Volunteers who lead religious services and skills-based classes are also set to return later this month. The Department of Corrections closed facilities to visitors last March after health officials warned of COVID-19 community spread. The agency reinstated family visitation with restrictions in late May 2020 but shut it down again in September after mass outbreaks at several prisons.