State corrections officials have no plans to seek funding for additional manpower despite a riot at Lieber prison Wednesday in which disgruntled inmates overpowered their greatly outnumbered guards.
Investigators are still trying to determine what sparked the five-hour riot at the Ridgeville prison. They also want to know how inmates got hold of a pipe used to beat the two corrections officers keeping watch over a dorm with 229 hard-core offenders, department spokesman Clark Newsom said.
Answering those questions will likely take time, and officials have no immediate plans to change policies at Lieber as a result of the riot, Newsom said. Corrections officials also aren’t looking to bolster manpower at Lieber or other prisons.
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In fact, as workers cleaned up the mess from the riot, department officials were in Columbia Thursday presenting a budget to lawmakers that holds the line on prison staffing.
The proposed $354 million corrections budget includes just $200,000 in new spending, and that would go toward equipment upgrades, Newsom said. The number of corrections officers would remain at about 3,900, supervising nearly 23,000 inmates, he said.
“Obviously, we would always like to have more,” he said. “But it is what it is. We’re in a tight budget situation and we have to do what we have to do.”
Newsom said special operations teams were stationed on rooftops and plenty of force was available to keep the uprising from spreading. Some 200 officers from a dozen area police agencies also surrounded the campus, and at no point was the surrounding public in danger, he said.
Newsom said he has heard reports that inmates were disgruntled with a bologna diet but he doesn’t believe cutbacks have resulted in curtailed recreation or shower time.
He said the recent lockdown resulted from “several incidents of violence” in recent weeks but he had no specifics to release.
Though locked down in their cells, the inmates took advantage of a “situation of opportunity” when bedding was being handed out.
They assaulted the two guards and stole their keys and radios, Newsom said. The inmates then rampaged through the dorm, smashing windows, trashing common areas and offices, and setting off water sprinklers. Some rooms filled with 3 feet of water.
Newsom said charges have not yet been filed against any inmates involved in the uprising. Officials also haven’t completed an estimate of damage from the incident.
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