Prison system reports attack on guard

A corrections officer at the Varner Supermax Unit was assaulted on New Year’s Eve and received “minor” injuries, according to a Department of Correction spokesman.

The assault occurred about 3 p.m. Dec. 31. An inmate who was being escorted to the shower area at the prison near Grady attacked the guard, according to department spokesman Solomon Graves.

The officer’s injuries did not require hospitalization, Graves said in an email Monday, but the inmate involved was taken to the hospital after being “restrained by responding officers.”

The inmate was returned to the prison the same day, Graves said.

The inmate’s name was not released.

Assaults and threats of violence were on the rise in Arkansas prisons in 2017, as the department with a shortage of corrections officers.

In an interview last month, state prisons Director Wendy Kelley said several high profile incidents were largely because of staff not following department policies.

Graves said by phone that an internal investigation into the attack would be conducted by the prison, but that there was not an immediate indication of any policies being broken.

The incident follows another assault at the Varner Unit in September that sent two corrections officers to the hospital. Four inmates were charged with battery last month as a result of the injuries, which involved a “homemade weapon.”

Graves said the inmate attempted to assault the officer with a weapon during the attack this weekend.

At the time of the incident, the inmate was being housed in an single-man restrictive housing cell and was being escorted to the shower by multiple officers, Graves said.