Three guards hurt in 2 prison attacks

Three guards were taken to hospitals Thursday afternoon after being assaulted by inmates in two attacks at state prisons, authorities said.

Shortly before 2 p.m., a guard was assaulted while in the housing area of the Maximum Security Unit in Tucker, according to a news release from the state Department of Correction. The officer reportedly suffered facial and head injuries.

About 2½ hours later, several inmates attacked two guards at the Varner Unit in Grady, the department said. One guard suffered multiple cuts, and the other received a “single injury,” according to the release.

Several inmates at Varner were sent to hospitals after prison personnel used nonlethal force to remove them from a barracks after the attack on the two guards, according to a Correction Department news release late Thursday. The inmates had barricaded themselves in the barracks.

According to the release, one of the guards injured at Varner was released from the hospital. The second Varner guard and the officer from the Tucker unit were still being treated.

No information was provided on the conditions of the inmates.

The Correction Department said it notified the Arkansas State Police about both attacks, and investigators were at the two prisons Thursday afternoon.

The Maximum Security Unit is a 532-bed prison down the road from a separate facility, the Tucker Unit, in Jefferson County. The Varner Supermax Unit, the state’s highest-security prison, is about 45 miles to the southeast of the Tucker lockups.

Prison spokesman Solomon Graves said the attacks appear to be unrelated. No prisons were locked down as a result, he said.

“Maintaining safe and secure facilities remains a constant focus of our entire department,” Graves wrote in a text message. “As for steps directly stemming from today, we are still in response mode.”

The Tucker Maximum Security Unit is the same lockup where several inmates held three officers captive after snatching their keys and a Taser last month. In July, a guard at the prison fired warning shots into the air after two guards and an inmate were attacked.

Graves said Thursday’s attack at the Tucker Maximum Security Unit was not related to the earlier disturbances there.

Graves declined to make either Wendy Kelley, director of the state Department of Correction, or the warden of the Tucker lockup available for an interview Thursday.