Close up image of a caretaker helping older woman walk

An Oklahoma provider is appealing after it was slapped with Immediate Jeopardy citations and $168,000 in fines for housing inmates injured in a prison riot.

The state Health Department said the arrangement was “bizarre and reckless,” according to local reports. The health department said regular residents at Buena Vista Care and Rehabilitation Center in Midwest City were in “immediate jeopardy” during the 28 days the four inmates were at the center. 

An October 2011 riot left prisoners with severe injuries, leading medical professionals to recommend some receive care at a skilled nursing facility, according to a spokesman for Corrections Corporate America, which runs the prison. The inmates from the North Fork Correctional Facility were always under guard and shackled to their beds at the nursing center, he added.

Regulators said residents would see the prisoners led through the home in chains on various occasions. Officials worried that even with a third armed guard outside, confrontations could occur if violent visitors arrived.