Texas Prison Riot Kills 1, Injures 32
A riot at a West Texas prison has killed one inmate and injured 31 other inmates, some critically, and a guard.
Officials at the Smith Unit say the riot began with a fight between two inmates in the chow hall. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Fitzgerald says the trouble began when an inmate confronted another inmate who was fondling himself in front of a female officer.
Authorities say word of the incident quickly spread throughout the unit, sparking a riot centered in the prison recreation yard, with some 300 inmates wielding garden tools.
State prison officials said it took about 300 guards to quell the riot at the minimum-to-medium-security prison. A kitchen was gutted by fire.
The disturbance at the Smith Unit began around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and was under control by midnight, said John Barton, spokesman for Warden Lupe Lozano.
"You're looking at one-on-one instead of 10-on-one in this kind of situation," Barton said, in reference to the number of guards needed to regain control.
Guards used a pepper spray-like substance to subdue the inmates. One guard suffered minor injuries from a gas grenade that went off in his hand.
Some of the injured inmates were taken to Brownfield Regional Medical Center. The hospital refused to give information, but Barton said some of the injuries were critical.
Six others were taken to the University Medical Center in Lubbock, where a hospital spokesman says none have life-threatening injuries. Nine others were taken to the hospital of the Monford unit prison in Lubbock.
Authorities have not released the name of the inmate who died or any details about exactly how he died.
The prison, about 60 miles south of Lubbock, was put under lockdown and an investigation is under way.
Barton notes that the prison is currently holding 1,322 prisoners, more than the 1,276 it was designed to house. Guards there have been complaining that the facility is understaffed and that complaint is currently the subject of an audit by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
It is the latest case of unrest at Texas prisons, the nation's second largest prison system, and the second in West Texas this month.
On April 14, an inmate held a guard hostage for seven hours at the William P. Clements Jr. Unit in Amarillo before surrendering. The guard was not injured.
In December, a guard at Beeville became the first Texas corrections officer killed in 17 years. In January, a guard at the Byrd Unit in Huntsville was stabbed in the belly with a pencil. In February, two death row inmates armed with pieces of metal took a female officer hostage and held her for 13 hours before surrendering.
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