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| Neb. Inmate Slashes Corrections Officer |
| By WOWT |
| Published: 01/23/2004 |
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A corrections officer was seriously injured Thursday when he was attacked by an inmate at the Douglas County Jail. Capt. John Lee suffered a cut above the eye which took 40 stitches to close. It happened in a part of the jail that was never built for inmates, the gymnasium. For years, the Douglas County Jail has been overcrowded, so the gym had to be turned into one big cell. In 1998 there were 39 inmates sleeping there. Thursday morning that number nearly doubled to 71. It used to be that an inmate could stay in his bed much of the day if he wanted, but in the last month, as a way to make this space safer, inmates were required each morning to stack the beds against the wall. That apparently didn't set well with 41-year-old Keith Holloway, now in jail on assault charges. He saw an older man who was allowed to keep sleeping on a cot because of a medical condition. Officers said Holloway wanted the same privilege and was willing to fight for it. "The officers came in, tried to talk to the inmate, as they approached him, he turned to Capt. Lee and hit him in the forehead," said jail director Bob Houston. Lee was able to return to work later in the day. Sgt. Ross Stebbins is president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 8, the union which represents the jail's correctional officers. "It's a gymnasium with one bathroom. We do the best we can until the new facility opens. Bottom line, when the new facility opens we're still gonna have one corrections officer watching up to 64 inmates at a time." "Overcrowding does not necessarily mean unsafe conditions," said Houston. "[It] means you need to manage in a lot smarter way than you managed before and that's what we're doing." Holloway has been taken out of the general population at the jail and faces additional charges of assaulting a corrections officer. The Douglas County Sheriff's office is investigating. |
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