April 25, 2007 06:41 pm
—
NEW CASTLE, Ind. (AP) — A day after inmates staged a two-hour riot, the New Castle Correctional Facility finished sorting good inmates from bad as Arizona prison leaders reconsidered their plan to continue transferring inmates to the Indiana prison.
Indiana and Arizona officials said Wednesday they had agreed before the riot to stop moving inmates to the facility because of concerns over an inspection. They won’t make a final decision on resuming until the investigation into the fracas involving 500 inmates is finished.
“We want to make sure we know exactly what happened, not go with a hunch,” said Arizona corrections spokeswoman Katie Decker.
Prison leaders moved 200 inmates to other facilities after watching videotapes Tuesday night of the riot, which damaged some prison housing units as prisoners set mattresses and paper afire in the courtyard, broke some windows and damaged sinks and toilets. Nine people, including two staff members, suffered minor injuries before the prison was secured, officials said.
A total of 69 Arizona inmates were transferred to the maximum-security Wabash Valley prison near Carlisle, and 151 inmates from Indiana were moved to Plainfield Correctional, a medium-security prison like New Castle.
Indiana Corrections Commissioner J. David Donahue said officials looked at the level of involvement in the incident in deciding which inmates to transfer.
“We looked at those folks who were less compliant with the direction of staff as the emergency squads managed the event,” he said. “We had a lot of offenders who did not want to be involved in the disturbance at all.”
The riot occurred six weeks after the first of some 600 Arizona inmates began joining 1,050 Indiana prisoners at the prison about 45 miles east of Indianapolis.
Arizona began sending prisoners to New Castle in March, a move designed to ease overcrowding in Arizona and help fill the largely vacant facility and generate revenue in Indiana.
The prison is run by Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO Group.
A total of 1,200 inmates were supposed to move from Arizona to Indiana, but Arizona Corrections Director Dora Schriro stopped the transfers last week after finding security and staffing concerns during a visit to the privately run facility, Decker said.
The concerns centered on permanent staffing and the staff’s experience.
“They were pulling staff from other areas around the state to put them into these positions, and we needed to be sure there was a permanent professional crew on site,” Decker said. “It wasn’t just a quantity issue, it also was quality and the level of experience.”
Donahue said Arizona was concerned about the size of a training class of new officers. He said there were 139 employees currently in training, which he called “an enormous group.”
“It was prudent to say let’s not bring more inmates in,” he said.
Arizona won’t decide whether to resume prisoner transfers or bring back existing prisoners until officials “start sorting out the hoopla from yesterday and get to the facts,” Decker said.
“My understanding is no one is coming back yet,” she said. “That would be a knee-jerk reaction.”
GEO Group officials said Tuesday’s riot apparently stemmed from inmates’ displeasure over policies at the Indiana prison, which included bans on smoking and restrictions on items inmates could have in their cells.
Trina Randall, a spokeswoman for GEO Group, said many inmates didn’t realize until they arrived that New Castle didn’t allow smoking. She said the prison offered nicotine patches and smoking-cessation classes to those inmates.
“I think that tobacco had the most upset,” Randall said.
Donahue said the different rules in Indiana, plus the separation from their families, could be factors in how inmates adjusted.
“I’m confident that has some emotional strain on the offenders from Arizona. We learned Arizona authorizes inmates to possess personal TVs. We do not. In ours, we use communal rooms with televisions. So it obviously is different. That transition is recognizable. That’s always a concern of mine in any environment.”
Decker, the Arizona spokeswoman, said Arizona has sent inmates to Texas and has about 1,500 in Oklahoma but acknowledged such moves aren’t ideal.
“They’re less likely to see us again if they have friend and family ties in place, and they’re less likely to keep that up if you’re halfway across the country,” she said.
Arizona used “strict criteria” to screen the inmates it planned to send north to Indiana, Decker said. Prison officials weeded out sex offenders, Mexican nationals and anyone with an escape conviction in the past four years.
Inmates with a history of rioting or assaulting officers were not eligible.
———
Associated Press writers Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis, Tom Coyne in South Bend and Bob Christie in Phoenix contributed to this story.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.