Lawyer: Prison told of riot risk

Officers cautioned Yuma brass weeks ago, he says

Corrections officials were warned of an impending riot at the Yuma prison weeks before the Thursday melee that left one prisoner dead and dozens injured, an attorney for correctional officers told The Arizona Republic.

Martin Bihn, a Phoenix attorney who has sued Corrections alleging chronic understaffing, said Monday that corrections officers told upper management at Arizona State Prison Complex-Yuma at least two weeks before the riot that inmates planned to rebel.

The reason: They were angry over plans to desegregate the facilities’ units, Bihn said.

A Corrections spokesman said that Bihn’s allegations were untrue and unsupported.

The threats were not taken seriously, Bihn said, and the officers were disciplined and placed under investigation for “agitating the inmates.”

“Absolutely, they were warned,”

Bihn said of managers at the prison. “They knew it would happen March 1.”

Despite the warning, the prison did not adequately staff the Cheyenne unit, where the riot occurred, Bihn added.

The unit is supposed to have 35 correctional officers on duty, he said, but only 28 were working during Thursday’s swing shift, when the riot began.

Bihn provided The Republic with an email from a Yuma correctional officer to support his statements.

Corrections late Monday issued a two-page statement that disputed Bihn’s statements.

The statement said 33 of the unit’s 35 designated posts were staffed by correctional officers at the time, along with two shift supervisors. And, it says, the Yuma complex has the lowest staff vacancy rate of all state-run prisons, including no correctional officer vacancies.

The agency said that it continues criminal and administrative investigations into Thursday’s “major disturbance” in Yuma. Damage was estimated at roughly $475,000.

Yuma’s tactical support unit was activated to regain order with shotguns deployed after inmates attacked prison personnel by using tables as shields, the agency said.

The Yuma riot was the second within a week in the Arizona prison system. The other occurred at the privately run Red Rock Correctional Center in Eloy, where a dozen inmates and two officers were injured.

Bihn said inmates favor being segregated because violence can occur if, for example, white supremacist inmates are housed with African-American inmates.

“If you were implementing a new race integration, you would want to put more officers on duty, not fewer,” Bihn said.

Corrections previously confirmed the incident that began at 6:18 p.m. Thursday and that inmates attacked prison personnel, set fires and threw rocks. About 600 inmates — more than half of the prison’s 1,147 inmates — took part, the Corrections Department said.

The Yuma correctional officer’s email states the riot erupted after an inmate refused to be housed with sex offenders, and force was used on an African-American inmate.

Corrections said the disturbance began as an inmate, who appeared to be impaired, was being escorted across the recreation yard. It’s illegal to have alcohol or drugs in Arizona prisons.

That inmate attempted to assault the officers and then ran from them. As the officers pursued him, other inmates spontaneously attacked the officers, Corrections said.

According to the correctional officer’s email, inmates charged correctional officers with mattresses. “The young inmates were in front, the oldest number inmates” were in the back, the email stated.

The inmates broke toilets, sinks and windows and also burned trash and left graffiti messages, according to the email. Inmates also confiscated narcotics and cut themselves while breaking windows, the

The riot caused one inmate death and injuries to 28 inmates and 11 employees.