A weeklong lockdown of more than 1,000 federal inmates is over after Seagoville prison administrators broke a food and work strike and placed some prisoners in solitary confinement.
The lockdown, which confined the low-security facility's nonviolent prisoners to their cells with no privileges or outside contact, ended recently.
“The inmates, as a whole, were attempting to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with what we had planned as a search of the institution,'' prison spokesman Russ Perdue told The Dallas Morning News.
Perdue said the inmates began the strike when a prison official ordered them to get rid of excess personal items - including magazines, clothing and newspapers  - deemed as safety hazards. He said Associate Warden Rod Chandler told the inmates the items were cluttering the facility.
The inmates rebelled, and authorities threatened to discipline them or search for their possessions, said Perdue.
More than 1,200 prisoners are incarcerated at the facility, which was designed for 866 inmates, officials said.
After the lockdown ended, friends and family were allowed to visit or call the inmates in the prison, located southeast of Dallas.
Recently, some inmates' family members said the strike resulted from months of harsh treatment for minor infractions by the new associate warden. The family members said the inmates were angry about inadequate access to medical treatment and better food. They said Chandler threatened to transfer inmates for infractions such as leaving wet towels on the floor.
Perdue said he doubted that such discipline was threatened.