Metal lockers, which have been used by inmates at the state’s maximum-security prison in Somers to make weapons, will be removed from inmate cells at that facility within two weeks, according to the state Department of Correction. This report from the Journal Inquirer.
The department made the decision following a meeting with legislators, which was prompted by an attack at the prison earlier this month where two inmates used weapons made from the lockers to stab another inmate. But in a related matter, the department has denied a correctional officer’s request to wear his own stab vest for protection while on duty at the same facility.
In planning for the removal of the lockers Correction Department officials are exploring alternatives in providing storage space for inmates … “We have contacted correction agencies across the country to determine what alternatives are available to us that will meet fire code and, most importantly, keep our staff safe,” [DOC spokesman Brian] Garnett said.
There is a lot more background in the full article.
vericatrajkova Connecticut, Maximum Security
Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla OR has been running its new higher-security housing unit for nearly three weeks. This report from EO Now.
The administrative housing unit, or AHU, is home to 60 inmates … Guy Hall, population management administrator for the Oregon Department of Corrections, said administrative housing provides more protective custody for inmates. That means the unit has different operational procedures, Hall said in an e-mail, such as limiting contact with other inmates. The inmates on the unit also have restricted visiting, which means inmates remain behind a glass window during visits. “Other than what has been mentioned, we try to operate the AHU close to the way we operate general population units,” Hall said …
[Some i]nmates …present specific challenges to prisons, Hall said. “The inmates whose crimes have received extensive media coverage are monitored in order to ensure their safety. Inmates of high notoriety are often placed on our sensitive inmate transport list which requires higher security escorting when they are moved from one institution to another. As always, we make mandatory contact with affected law enforcement agencies.”
Hall said the new unit will free up bed space for segregation units at prisons in the Willamette Valley. The unit is not the direct result of the passage of Ballot Measure 57, which created mandatory minimum prison sentences for certain drug and property crime convicts. “However, with its passage the department must be as efficient as possible with bed space,” Hall said. “For a long time, there was a deficient number of AHU cells available in segregation units at institutions in the Valley. There were many transfers of inmates occurring between those institutions, which was inefficient.”
vericatrajkova Maximum Security, Oregon