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| N.M. Inmate's 'Spider Bites' May Have Been From Tattooing |
| By Ruidoso News |
| Published: 10/07/2002 |
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A window was broken and damage occurred in one unit of the Lincoln County Detention Center on October 2 after inmates complained about spider bites. But a discovery during a shakedown of the jail pod after the disturbance was shut down has county officials wondering if the infected sores may have another origin. 'There was a disturbance in Pod C about 11:30 p.m.,' said County Manager Tom Stewart, who oversees the operation of the jail in Carrizozo that is managed by Correctional Systems Inc. 'One window was broken, a commode was smashed and a seat on a table was bent.' He estimated the damage at less than $500. 'Five inmates previously reported spider bites that swelled up with a fluid discharge,' Stewart said. 'I recommended to Mike Borrego (jail administrator) that the whole center be sprayed, even though the reports all came from five inmates in one pod (of about 20 people). 'He sprayed, but something about the bites disturbed the inmates.' The five inmates who initiated the disturbance were handcuffed and are being kept in isolation, Stewart said. After they were removed, officials conducted a shakedown of the pod. They confiscated makeshift tools for tattooing. Now Stewart is wondering if unclean tattooing equipment, not spiders, may have caused the infected sores. 'It turns my stomach to see the kind of things they do to themselves,' Stewart said. 'We're trying to find out now if it was tattooing that caused the problems, because then we have to be treating them with a different medical approach, looking at possible hepatitis.' He described the tattooing equipment as 'stupid but ingenious.' 'It looked like they took refills from cheap plastic pens, blew out the contents, and with the springs and two pins picked at themselves with it,' he said, adding that the 'ink' was some type of burned material. 'We're doing a follow-up investigation and are looking at charges against the perpetrators.' Four of the inmates were local residents and one was a federal prisoner, he said. |
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