Inmates Riot At Indiana Prison

Two-Hour Uprising Injures Two Staff Members

(CBS/AP)  Inmates staged a two-hour riot at a medium-security men's prison Tuesday, injuring two staff members and setting fires in a courtyard.

Indiana Department of Correction spokeswoman Java Ahmed said more than one cell house was involved in the disturbance at the New Castle Correctional Facility, about 43 miles east of Indianapolis.

Correction Commissioner J. David Donahue said the riot began after a group of inmates from Arizona took off their shirts in the prison's recreation area to show staff they wouldn't comply with orders. They had been told to keep them on.

Corrections officials sent emergency squads and county and state police to the prison. New Castle Mayor Tom Nipp said the entire city police force was also activated.

Helicopter pictures showed officers in riot gear standing outside the prison fence.

Pictures taken by a television helicopter owned by CBS affiliate WISH in Indianapolis, Ind., showed at least three fires burning around the facility.

Authorities later secured the prison perimeter and confirmed that no inmates escaped, although some were still out of their cells, Indiana State Police Sgt. Rod Russell said. All staff members were accounted for.

Authorities did not release the condition of the two injured staff members, though Donahue said neither suffered serious injuries.

One man was knocked down by inmates in the courtyard, Donahue said. He did know how the other person was injured.

Five inmates were treated for effects of tear gas that authorities used to quell the disturbance, said Trina Randall, a spokeswoman for GEO Group Inc., the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company that manages the prison.

Two other inmates suffered minor cuts, Randall said.

The prison, built in 2002, can house about 2,200 inmates. It currently has about 1,000 prisoners from Indiana and 630 from Arizona.

In March, Arizona and Indiana reached an agreement on housing up to 1,260 Arizona inmates.

Arizona Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katie Decker said at least some of the transferred inmates had complained about being moved, a step that was necessary because of the state's shortage of prison space.

“They're obviously resentful because they had to leave the state,” she said, adding that it was too early to say whether the transfers played any role in the riot.

Decker said the inmates sent to New Castle were “carefully picked” before being transferred and could have “no predisposition to violence.”

The prison housed an average daily population of 450 in 2005, according to the DOC web site. It also has a psychiatric facility that treats inmates who are bused in from other prisons.

GEO Group last year contracted with the Indiana Department of Correction to assume management of the prison.

[htophet]

What else can we expect at these times? With the non-leadership politically occupying the white house since 2001 it is not surprising that the jails are not just over loading, they have in fact jumped from about 1.2 million to 2.3 million in fewer than three years, while violence has taken off. The incidents of homicides in domestic squabbles, gang activity mirror the diminishing respect for life and civility which is the only thing our leadership has promoted. They have condoned openly murder, rape, sodomy and torture while step by step undercutting democracy. As the prices of everything continue to go up the possibility of being forced to use the preamble to the Constitution changes of government tools seems more evident and necessary, the riots are merely indicators. The present administration if allowed to continue in office will pit us against each other, divide and conquer, while selling us and our country to the highest bidder, it is not just prisoners who are acting out their rage and frustration, soon we all will have to if we are to survive.

[uncle-fun]

They're prisoners, they made a CHOICE to be there, except for the 1 or 2% that were railroaded or framed. I bet if they were sent to a maximum security prison where they had more to worry about (sodomy) then they'd leave their *** shirts on.

[jonesforch]

doggler7 ?

Seek professional help for all our sakes.

[boondoggler7]

Stop rioottting you fooolllss. If the castle crumbles, ye will crumble with the crumbles. Ride it out, do yeee time, and yeee can be playing dominos with yeee grand kiddiess! Yippitty Yeee yeee!

[boondoggler7]

why is it bush's fault? ArggghhH!!!, my grandioused dillusioned head swellls with irresponsible pridefulness. How can yeeee cover the topic in 500 words of yoorrr!!! Such a topic could not even be cover in the yorkshire times alones, let alone that rag in new york. ye already knows, ye need to rewrite da bibble to make some point.

[boondoggler7]

he was only seventeeeen, seventeeeeeen!!! This is what started the dream, the dream of being someone else. Someone else, smelsh!!!! Cheeneny say he can only be himself. However, according to the laws of our great land, your right to be yourself stops at the other mans pinochio nose. Let him be his jingoistic, swaggering self on a piratship offf yojnder. Please be not oneself at the helm of your globalb necrophiliac based phallic zymbols! Barggghhhhh!!!!

[boondoggler7]

Enough, you people!!! You have already provben your metal!!! No longer does it mattter what you do or say. IT will always be a great showwww!!!! Time to hit the road. But alas!!! I am having to much fun. Some may critize my humor as mordbid, but I'll be damned if I'll stop gigglling. Death and debauchery ahs always been a human value. If we are to live we must continue to luagh at loud. As the pentagramgon instructed to the families of the fallen, laugh at death. As bush shat near warreeen beaatty while his whimsical nature resulted in death, dismemberment, and charred human body parts coupled my massssive amounts of shodmimy and girlzraping, he laughed like bansheeee. You laugh, at me, I whale with uproarious laughter at theeeee. Teeeeeee heeeeeeeeeee eheeeeee!

[boondoggler7]

We are already immersed in a civil wear fascistusa. However, we need it not. Let the bots, dot their graves in the sand, for war is no longer civil, but a result of mindless, gurgling dribble coming from the face of a an slobb simmering in a global electric charrrrrr. Argghhh!!!!!!

[katana135]

Usually the cause of a riot, especially at a medium security facility, would be do to conditons at that facility. Who knows what the conditions are like in there since it has been privitized. These are offenders that are not generally considered to be a great risk, which is why they are in a medium security facility in the first place. It would have taken something pretty substantial to have set them off. The story of what happened will come out. I do not agree that back breaking labor is the answer. These people are, after all, human beings, contrary to what some may think.

[boondoggler7]

Cheney is lucking uglier, and gnarlier by the day. Perhaps he was handsome and cute at one time. Probably still is. Be a little handsomer if you smiled once in a while. So would al gore, if you wasn't so constipated. Hahahhahahaa. That's just a joke, alll! I love your stuffff!!!! I always knew you were not woodeeen. Cameras tend to cause a lot of folks to freeze.