Prison inmates took corrections officers hostage on November 11, beating and stabbing them with parts of torn-up furniture from their cells, police said.
Seven officers were injured in the disturbance at the privately run Torrance County Detention Facility.
The officer' injuries ranged from blunt trauma to stab wounds, State Police
Lt. Gary Smith said. Most of their injuries appeared to be minor, he said.
The riot started after midnight and was quelled in about two hours after an emergency response team talked the inmates into releasing the hostages, then threw tear gas into the cellblock, Smith said.
None of the 32 inmates involved in the uprising was injured.
Authorities said they did not know what triggered the riot.
“They (the prisoners) had been tearing up the pod and trying to arm themselves with parts of furniture,'' Smith said.
The inmates, secured in their cells, were to be moved one at a time into other cells while the tear gas was cleared from their cellblock, he said.
The prison about 40 miles east of Albuquerque is operated by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America and has been the site of several disturbances in recent years.
In August 1999, a fight during an inmate softball game left five prisoners and two officers injured. In 1998, one inmate was fatally stabbed, and other disturbances resulted in injuries to seven inmates and five officers.