Inmates take 2 guards hostage in Oklahoma

TULSA, Okla. — Hundreds of inmates — some armed with baseball bats and iron pipes — rioted at an Oklahoma federal prison for about eight hours, taking two guards hostage and refusing to return to their cells before they were finally corralled by law enforcement officers, authorities said Monday.

The riot started late Sunday at the Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton after a fight broke out in the prison yard, and rapidly escalated from there, said Caddo County Sheriff Lennis Miller. Miller said the inmates refused to return to their cells and at one point occupied one building in the complex located about 55 miles (90 kilometers) west of Oklahoma City.

“It was a full-fledged riot,” Miller said.

Miller said about 150 inmates were involved, but The GEO Group Inc., the Florida-based operator of the private prison, estimated Monday that about 400 inmates caused the disturbance in two recreation yards. Miller said prisoners, some toting bats and pipes, took two guards hostage at the outset of the riot, but that both were freed and uninjured. It wasn’t immediately clear how the inmates got the weapons, how they were able to get inside one of the buildings or what prompted the riot.

Miller said authorities used pepper spray and stun grenades to corral inmates into a soccer field and an exercise yard. The riot ended early Monday after roughly eight hours, authorities said.

Pablo Paez, a spokesman for The GEO Group, said in a statement Monday that the prison was secured without serious injury to staff, inmates or law officers. He said the Federal Bureau of Prisons and other agencies are reviewing the incident. The prison houses about 1,900 inmates.