Prisoners riot again

Press, 28 May 1981, Page 6

Prisoners riot again

NZPA-Reuter Jackson Up to 1000 inmates, many armed with makeshift clubs, rioted for 9 hours and a half yesterday at the Southern Michigan Prison, taking over a cellblock and setting fire to prefabricated dormitories. The riot, the second in five days, was quelled by several hundred state police and prison guards wearing gas masks and armed with rifles who moved into the exercise yard to herd prisoners <into cellblocks. No fatalities were reported,- and the authorities said no hostagds were taken. About an hour after the Jackson riot was over, between 150 and 200 prisoners were involved in a disturbance at Marquette State Prison in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, about 680 km to the north. <-

Officials said the inmates lit three fires, still burning two hours later, and refused to return to their cells. Paul Manard, assistant to the Warden at Marquette, said, “We can only speculate it (the disturbance) stems from the general unrest that has been prevalent at Jackson.” Most of the 1000 inmates milling around the yard at Jackson moved toward cells, some running, when officials using bullhorns said that the officers — about 165 troopers and an estimated 200 guards — were about to move in. “It’s all over now, we’re just cleaning up,” the prison housing unit supervisor, Roger Dickinsen, said. About noon the inmates took control of a mediumsecurity area on the north side of the prison,'outside the

walls but surrounded by a barbed-wire fence.

William Kime, deputy director of the State Corrections Department, said the troopers and guards herded the inmates into two cellblocks to be searched and put into already overcrowded cells.

The latest riot began with a fight between inmates of

the maximum-security cellblocks and the mediumsecurity prefabricated units, officials said.

The prisoners, many carrying makeshift clubs, then began lighting fires and milling through the yard. “We had a real holocaust on our hands,” said Deputy Warden Louis Utess.

At least 21 people were injured. Two prisoners, one guard and one .fireman were taken to hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation.