KConnor56
01-22-2003, 02:59 PM
ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
January 3, 2003
DISTURBANCE AT TEXAS PRIVATE PRISON PROMPTS POSTPONEMENT OF FURTHER TRANSFERS
Eighty-two Arizona Department of Corrections inmates who are incarcerated at the Newton County Correctional Center in Newton, Texas were involved in a disturbance that occurred at the facility on Thursday night.
The inmates flooded dormitories, tore up mattresses, destroyed community televisions and broke windows and light fixtures. Prison staff fired pepper gas into the dormitories to quell the disturbance. There were no attempts by any of the inmates to escape. No injuries occurred to inmates or staff. Prison administrators are preliminarily estimating 10 to 15 thousand dollars in damage.
All of the inmates who participated in the disturbance are Mexican Nationals. At this time, all of them have been placed under investigative detention status and are being moved to single cells. An investigation into the cause of the disturbance by administrators from the Arizona Department of Corrections and Correctional Services Corporation, the company contracted to run the facility, has begun. Until the investigation is completed, the Arizona Department of Corrections will postpone additional transfers of inmates to the Newton County Correctional Center.
The Department had transferred a total of 346 inmates to the Newton County, Texas facility since November in a contract with Correctional Services Corporation to house 636 minimum, medium and high medium security inmates there. The Arizona Legislature had directed funding for the remainder of the fiscal year to place inmates in private prison beds, including out-of-state, in order to take advantage of a competitive private prison bidding environment and to provide immediate relief to severe prison overcrowding.
ADC News Releases
January 3, 2003
DISTURBANCE AT TEXAS PRIVATE PRISON PROMPTS POSTPONEMENT OF FURTHER TRANSFERS
Eighty-two Arizona Department of Corrections inmates who are incarcerated at the Newton County Correctional Center in Newton, Texas were involved in a disturbance that occurred at the facility on Thursday night.
The inmates flooded dormitories, tore up mattresses, destroyed community televisions and broke windows and light fixtures. Prison staff fired pepper gas into the dormitories to quell the disturbance. There were no attempts by any of the inmates to escape. No injuries occurred to inmates or staff. Prison administrators are preliminarily estimating 10 to 15 thousand dollars in damage.
All of the inmates who participated in the disturbance are Mexican Nationals. At this time, all of them have been placed under investigative detention status and are being moved to single cells. An investigation into the cause of the disturbance by administrators from the Arizona Department of Corrections and Correctional Services Corporation, the company contracted to run the facility, has begun. Until the investigation is completed, the Arizona Department of Corrections will postpone additional transfers of inmates to the Newton County Correctional Center.
The Department had transferred a total of 346 inmates to the Newton County, Texas facility since November in a contract with Correctional Services Corporation to house 636 minimum, medium and high medium security inmates there. The Arizona Legislature had directed funding for the remainder of the fiscal year to place inmates in private prison beds, including out-of-state, in order to take advantage of a competitive private prison bidding environment and to provide immediate relief to severe prison overcrowding.
ADC News Releases