Print |
E-mail to a friend
NEWS BRIEFS
Report: Bad food didn’t cause Ky. prison riot
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Despite previous claims, investigators said Friday that bad food wasn’t the primary cause of a fiery riot at a central Kentucky prison in August.
The inmates were instead reacting to a partial lockdown and planned restrictions on their movement when they rioted and set fires that destroyed most of the buildings at Northpoint Training Center in August, investigators said in a 22-page report released Friday afternoon.
Prisoners started fires in trash cans that eventually spread, seriously damaging several buildings at the medium-security facility near Burgin about 30 miles south of Lexington on Aug. 21.
Officers in riot gear rushed in with tear gas, and all inmates were subdued within two hours. Eight inmates were taken to nearby hospitals and eight prison workers were treated at the scene. No one was killed.
The damage to the prison, which opened in 1983, was so severe that some 700 inmates had to be transferred to other lockups around the state.
“The interviews with the inmates determined that there was a general concern about the quality of food and the price of canteen items,” investigators said in the report. “However, the majority of the inmates stated that neither food service nor canteen prices was a primary cause for the disturbance.”
