Lockup disturbance leaves officer injured
A correctional officer was injured Wednesday night after inmates at an Arkansas prison broke windows and ignited small fires, officials said.
A dozen inmates at the Varner Supermax Unit, a high-security prison in Grady, began breaking barracks windows and setting small trash fires in a housing building around 10:30 p.m., according to an Arkansas Department of Corrections news release.
Correctional officers got control of the situation, and no inmates were hurt, the release said, though one officer reportedly suffered a minor injury.
Details on where and how the officer was injured as well as how long it took authorities to stop the inmates’ actions were unknown Thursday morning, prison spokesman Solomon Graves said.
After the broken glass and debris from the fires were cleaned up, prison operations continued as normal, Graves said. Inmates ate their scheduled breakfast Thursday morning and went to work within the facility, he added.
Graves said Varner authorities do not know why the disturbance occurred, adding that an investigation is ongoing. Officials will review security footage, interview staff members and talk to inmates who were involved, he said. Depending on those findings, the investigation might be moved to the central office for additional review, he said.
No decisions had been made about any potential charges tied to the disturbance, Graves said.
The disturbance happened a little more than a month after an inmate at the prison was found dead in his cell, which was previously reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Prison staff members found Rodney Weston, 36, unconscious in his cell at 8 a.m. on Oct. 24, Graves reported at the time. Officers began emergency medical treatment, but Weston was pronounced dead at the unit.
Graves did not say at the time how Weston died, but he said Arkansas State Police would conduct an investigation into the death.
Weston had been incarcerated in 2005 and was serving a life sentence in the fatal shooting of a man at a bar in Eudora.