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California Prisons Locked Down After Massive Riot Hospitalizes Prisoner, Eight Guards

Loaded on April 1, 2024 published in Prison Legal News April, 2024, page 15
Filed under: Overcrowding, Lockdowns, Pepper Spray/Tear Gas, Assaults on Staff. Location: California.

A riot broke out at Ironwood State Prison on January 31, 2024, triggering a “threat assessment” that locked down every facility run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Eight staffers and one prisoner were hospitalized after the brawl. All were released the following day.

A huge group of 200 prisoners rushed at guards during a contraband investigation on the prison yard, which began after a prisoner head-­butted a guard escorting him. Neither the prisoner nor the guard he assaulted was named. Fists and rocks flew during the melee before guards subdued the crowd with “chemical agents” and “non-­lethal impact rounds,” CDCR said. Afterward, prison officials instituted a 24-­hour “modified programming” protocol, restricting activities at yards and dayrooms in all state prison facilities.

Investigators said the following day that they had so far identified 30 prisoners who participated in the uprising. Movement in Facility D at the prison also remained restricted while the investigation continued.

Located near the Arizona border, Ironwood is a Level III state prison in CDCR’s four-­level security designation system, adjacent to the Level II Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, which is slated to close in March 2025. Both lockups are significantly over capacity, holding 2,464 and 2,176 prisoners in facilities designed for 2,200 and 1,738, respectively.  

 

Source: CBS News

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