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Rioting inmates set US prison ablaze
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-22 18:07 BURGIN, Kentucky: Rioting inmates started fires that damaged several buildings at a central Kentucky prison, and some prisoners suffered minor injuries in the melee, police said Saturday. Dozens of law enforcement officers responded to the disturbance that began around 6:30 p.m. Friday at the medium-security Northpoint Training Center, in a rural area 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Lexington.
No staff or officers were hurt, he said. Jude did not elaborate on inmates' injuries and did not know if any had been hospitalized. A medical building, kitchen and other buildings were damaged in the fires, according to a news release from the Kentucky Justice & Public Safety Cabinet. Flames and smoke could be seen from miles away, and they continued to burn early Saturday. Officials were trying to determine whether the dormitories could be immediately occupied by any of the prison's 1,200 inmates. Officers in riot gear rushed the prisoners with tear gas about 9 p.m., the news release said. All inmates were subdued by 10:30 p.m. Northpoint houses more than 1,100 general population inmates in six open-bay dormitories, according to its Web site. Another 60 special-management inmates are housed in single cells in a separate structure, and 40 minimum-security inmates are in another separate building. The prison opened in 1983 and has a staff of 285. A prison spokeswoman said earlier Friday that the prison had been on lockdown since Tuesday, when one group of inmates assaulted two others, The Advocate-Messenger of Danville reported. Mendolyn Cochran said inmates set fires in trash cans in one building, then when they were called to the yard, they continued to set fires and destroy prison property, the newspaper reported. Jude said he was unable to confirm that information, and said he didn't know if some inmates may have planned the riot. |
