Sixty-nine Connecticut inmates in a controversial Virginia prison are being charged with inciting a riot after a confrontation with officers in an outdoor recreation area.
A Bridgeport inmate said the men were protesting harsh treatment and abuse at Wallens Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap Sunday and wanted to talk to the warden when they started a protest that resulted in an unknown number of injuries.
The inmate, Abdul 'Kareem' Mukhtaar, 25, in a letter to his father obtained by the Connecticut Post recently, said he was not allowed proper medical attention for a wound to an eye caused by a rubber shotgun pellet fired during the confrontation.
Connecticut and Virginia prison officials, however, asserted that inmates had their injuries properly tended and that Mukhtaar, in particular, denied his vision was impaired two days after writing the letter.
A spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections said Thursday that an internal investigation into the incident must be completed before criminal charges could be recommended to state officials.
However, even if the case is not referred for a criminal investigation, the inmates stand to lose privileges, from meeting visitors to making phone calls home.
A spokeswoman for the Connecticut Department of Correction said recently the agency is satisfied with the handling of the case, which has left inmates confined to their cells in what is called a lockdown.
She said Virginia officials responded to the disturbance appropriately.
The showdown with officers occurred shortly before noon on December 3, as the Connecticut inmates were marching in line back to their cellblock area after lunch.
In an apparently planned effort, the inmates stopped, strayed from the designated walkway and approached an undisclosed number of officers.
'The inmates became very loud and were yelling as they were returning to their building,' said Christina Polce, spokeswoman for the Connecticut DOC, quoting from the Virginia incident report. 'They were voicing they were not going back to their building.'
Polce said the report indicates that a captain on duty first ordered prison officers to show their weapons, notified the warden of the incident and gave the inmates one minute to get back on the walkway. When the Connecticut convicts refused, the officers first fired one round of shells into the air and ordered them to lie on the concrete recreation slab. Then the officers fired rubber shotgun shells at the inmates.
After the first volley, about half the inmates went to the ground, according to the report, which does not indicate how many rounds were fired. When high-voltage stun guns were brought in, the inmates complied with orders.
No officers were injured, according to the Virginia DOC report quoted by Polce.