BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The Idaho Department of Correction says one correctional officer was hospitalized with an injured shoulder after Idaho inmates being housed in a Texas prison participated in a “group disturbance.”
The Idaho Statesman reports the incident took place Friday evening at the Eagle Pass Correctional Facility in Texas, which houses 548 Idaho inmates.
A department spokesman said what happened at the Texas facility was not a riot, but a disturbance that required a prison tactical unit.
The incident began when two correctional officers at the Texas prison spotted an inmate kitchen worker attempting to steal food at the facility’s kitchen, IDOC spokesman Jeff Ray said. Staff ordered the inmate, whose name was not released, to surrender the items and he refused.
“After the inmate was escorted back to his housing unit, he was told he was being moved to restrictive housing for assaulting the officer,” Ray said in an email to the Statesman on Monday. “He was also told he was losing his job as a kitchen worker and would receive disciplinary action for assaulting staff and stealing food.”
That’s when some other inmates in the 44-person housing unit became upset, Ray said.
“They put towels over their heads and covered security cameras with toilet paper,” Ray said. “They blocked the entrances to the housing unit with property boxes and garbage cans filled with water.”
Ray said the prison administrator told the inmates to return to their cells, but 11 refused. That’s when a prison tactical response team used pepper spray and moved them into a restrictive housing unit.
Ray said one staff member was taken to the hospital for treatment of an injured shoulder, but no inmates were injured and damage to the facility was minimal.
Ray said decisions about disciplinary action is pending.
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Information from: Idaho Statesman, http://www.idahostatesman.com
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