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| Report, interviews give details of prison riot |
| By The Courier-Journal |
| Published: 11/29/2004 |
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The first visible sign of a recent riot at the Lee Adjustment Center in Kentucky was when inmates targeted the wooden officer tower, using large concrete ashtrays to break its legs. With an officer still inside, inmates began pulling the tower apart, using the wood to batter the maintenance building, where ladders, wire cutters and axes were stored, according to inmate interviews and an official account of the Sept. 14 riot. The six-page Sept. 27 report, obtained by The Courier-Journal under the state's open-records law, does not conclude what caused the riot or make recommendations, but it confirms much of what inmates said about the riot in interviews with the newspaper. The Corrections Corporation of America, which owns and runs the prison, and Kentucky and Vermont prison officials are investigating the riot. Two weeks ago, a Lee County grand jury indicted 23 inmates on riot charges and for being persistent felony offenders. No inmate escaped from the prison, which houses Kentucky and Vermont prisoners, and none was seriously injured, officials said. According to the report, prepared by a Lee shift supervisor, CCA officers quelled the 7:25 p.m. uprising in a little more than two hours. By then, inmates had burned the administration building, ripped out electrical wiring, raided the commissary and caused other damage to the 800-inmate prison. Steve Owen, a spokesman for CCA, based in Nashville, Tenn., said officers acted appropriately. They are trained to leave riots, regroup and secure the prison perimeter, he said. "Our staff did an admirable job, and because of that we're talking about property damage instead of physical injury," Owen said. |
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