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| Powder prompts lockdown at R.I. correctional facility |
| By Providence Journal |
| Published: 08/13/2004 |
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A white powdery substance mailed to an inmate triggered a building lockdown at the Adult Correctional Institutions yesterday in Cranston, R.I., and prompted three officers to take decontamination showers. Field tests conducted at the scene by the Cranston Fire Department and DEM officers determined that the white powder was "a harmless common household substance," said ACI spokeswoman Joy Fox. The substance was taken to the Health Department. The lockdown at the Price Medium Security Unit began at 10:45 a.m. after a mailroom officer opened a letter and "a white powdery substance came out," Fox said. The lockdown ended at about 1 p.m. The ACI Special Investigation Unit and the Inspector's office are investigating the inmate and whoever sent the letter to him, Fox said. "There's no return address." The well-scripted emergency response brought the Cranston Fire Department's Hazmat unit, the state Department of Environmental Management, the Emergency Management Agency, the state police and the U.S. Postal Inspector's office to the prison, Fox said. The mailroom officer who opened the letter and two officers who responded to the scene were quarantined, then "they changed their clothes, and took a [decontamination] shower," Fox said. They were then taken to Rhode Island Hospital, "which is standard practice," she added. |
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