Inmates attack corrections officer during skirmish at Florida facility

Deborah Buckhalter
Media General News Service
Published: May 29, 2008

Several off-duty correctional officers were called in to work early Thursday evening because of a disturbance at Apalachee Correctional Institution near Sneads, according to Florida Department of Corrections spokesperson Gretl Plessinger.

Plessinger said that early information was sketchy, but did give the following account based on initial reports from within the institution.

An inmate who had been confronted by a guard about a rule infraction tried to hit the correctional officer with a softball bat in the recreation yard. He swung twice but missed, and wound up punching the officer instead. Two other inmates then apparently started attacking the guard, but the officer was not believed to be seriously injured, Plessinger said.

With 400 inmates on the yard at the time, the tower guard fired a warning shot because of the incident taking place between the inmates and the officer.

In response to the warning shot, the rest of the inmates started sitting down on the ground, Plessinger said, and order was quickly restored. All were seated within roughly two minutes of the shot being fired, she said.

The three inmates involved in the incident were isolated from the general prison population, and extra staff members were called in to work in the aftermath of the disturbance.

Plessinger stressed that the information here is preliminary and could change as officials sort out all the facts.

She did not immediately have the names of the inmates or the officer involved.