Few details were emerging this morning regarding a fight in the prison yard Sunday in the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence. Two inmates died and five others were sent to local hospitals.
U.S. Attorney for Colorado Troy Eid said authorities believe the fight started when white supremacist inmates acted “proactively” on Adolf Hitler’s birthday and targeted minorities.
The fight broke out in the facility’s recreation yard.
Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley says no staff members were hurt, but the names of the dead and details on how they died have not been released.
The U.S. Penitentiary is a high-security prison, one of three in the Florence Federal Correctional Complex, about 90 miles south of Denver.
The Federal Correctional Institution and the Administrative Maximum U.S. Penitentiary — or “Supermax” — are also located there.
Supermax inmates include Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski and Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.
The U.S. Penitentiary, a high-security prison for male inmates, is the second-highest security prison at the complex.
In January 2007, seven correctional officers at the U.S. Penitentiary were injured in an inmate disturbance.
In 1999, inmate Joey Estrella was found strangled, with his neck slashed and some of his organs removed.
Two cousins who shared his cell were charged with first-degree murder. One was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. The trial of the second got under way last week.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
