Jail’s tight leash on Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin all about ‘safety,’ not silencing, expert says

OREM, Utah – A former federal corrections official says the Utah jail holding Tyler Robinson, the man accused of assassinating Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, would be reckless not to treat him differently from other inmates — describing a strict, high-security regime meant to keep him and others safe.

“Somebody like that, like the alleged Charlie Kirk assassin, is in a very different circumstance than he has been in prior times in his life,” Judi Garrett told Fox News. 

“So while he may or may not have displayed any tendency towards certain behaviors, he may be interested in engaging those behaviors now. … Any custodian of someone like that would be remiss in not treating him very differently from most everyone else in their population.”

Garrett, a former assistant director of the Bureau of Prisons, explained that inmate isolation isn’t necessarily punishment.

Meals, showers, and legal visits all occur under escort or within the cell itself, Garrett added. 

Garrett said solitary-confinement reforms have generated fierce debate over the past decade.

“Just the terminology … is a misnomer. These people are not isolated from other people, nor are they in a solitary environment,” she said.

Reformers push for more human contact; correctional officers argue the tool is critical to safety. She pointed to New York’s HALT statute, which limits solitary confinement, as an example fueling tension with staff.

Garrett emphasized that humane treatment is not driven by sympathy, but by the need to ensure the safety of the inmates.

“Most importantly, 96, 7, 8, 9 percent of them return to the community at some point,” she said. “If you mistreat people in prison, they are going to mistreat someone else … So it’s to everyone’s benefit to operate institutions that are humane.”

Even in the highest-security or death-row units, she said, “those folks … don’t have much to lose,” so extreme caution protects both staff and inmates.

Robinson is accused of fatally shooting Kirk during one of his campus events at Utah Valley University on September 10. Authorities have described the incident as a targeted assassination. 

Later that same day, Robinson was arrested in St. George after allegedly making statements to his parents, romantic partner, and friends that either admitted to or implied his involvement, according to court documents. 

He now faces seven charges, including aggravated homicide, which carries the possibility of the death penalty, along with felony discharge of a firearm, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering. He has not yet entered a plea.

Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.