DENVER—Six times as many inmates were injured in a deadly prison disturbance than were originally reported last spring, and a guard was also injured, according to a single-page incident report given to an inmate and obtained by Denver newspapers.
Prison officials originally said that two inmates were shot and killed by prison guards during the April 20 riot at the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence and five others were injured. Up to 200 inmates fought with rocks, sharpened metal, plastic, and wood during the riot, which officials said was sparked when white supremacist inmates targeted minorities on Adolf Hitler’s birthday.
A prison union official said Wednesday said the inmate injuries noted in the incident report happened in the melee in the prison’s recreation yard.
“It’s the craziest thing in 15 years I’ve seen with the bureau,” said Ken Shatto, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1302, which represents officers at a federal prison complex 96 miles south of Denver.
Shatto said the five originally reported injured, along with two inmates who were killed, suffered their injuries from non-lethal and lethal weapons fired from guard towers.
The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News obtained an incident report provided to inmate Frank Sims, who is now at a low-security prison in Oakdale, La. The report, which was reviewed by The Associated Press, said 30 inmates were injured, as well as a guard.
Prison officials previously said no guards were injured. The report did not provide additional details.
A spokeswoman with the Bureau of Prisons, which oversees the prison, could not immediately provide details.
The report, which Shatto said usually are a step in administrative discipline within the prison, said that Sims and five others forced their way out a food service area while on their way to the recreation yard to participate in the disturbance. In a letter to the News, Sims said he was trapped in the yard and forced to defend himself.
Shatto, who hasn’t seen the report, didn’t know about the injury but said the guard may have been injured as he tried holding the door to the kitchen closed.
Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, whose district includes the prison, previously said that guards fired up to 300 non-lethal and lethal rounds in an effort to break up the melee.
“They fired warning shot after warning shot, maybe more than necessary because nobody wanted to shoot an inmate,” said Shatto, declining to release details. “We had no choice, we had to go lethal. We were losing control.”
FBI spokeswoman Kathy Wright said agents concluded their investigation and found the guards were justified in firing their weapons. Some inmates, including a group that assaulted another inmate after the disturbance, could face charges, Wright said.
U.S. Attorney spokesman Jeff Dorschner said they were reviewing the case and could not comment on whether any inmates would face charges.
Shatto said more guards have recently been added and the union and prison officials have worked together on security improvements, including adding fences in the recreation yard to help guards separate fighting inmates.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who has advocated increasing staffing levels at the Florence Federal Correctional Complex, which includes the Federal Correctional Institution and the so-called “Supermax” penitentiary, this week asked the Bureau of Prisons to release results of its investigation.
“The people of Colorado, especially those in the communities surrounding the USP, deserve the assurance that the BOP is taking the steps necessary to improve security at the facility and prevent terrible incidents like this in the future,” Salazar wrote in a letter to bureau director Harley G. Lappin.
McFadyen said prison officials added staff to the prison after an inmate disturbance in January 2007 that injured seven correctional officers.
“The question remains, as we improve the staffing at our own U.S. Penitentiary, where else in the system are we losing staff?” McFadyen asked.
Inmates at the complex’s Supermax prison include Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski and Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.
