400 Inmates Fight In Arizona
400 inmates were fighting this morning in a state prison near Tucson, according to ABC15.com, a website for an Arizona TV station. Department of Corrections spokesman Bill Lamoreaux said that authorities had locked down the prison while they investigated.
According to a report by Dylan Smith for Tucson Sentinel, the huge “brawl” involved “about 300 white and Mexican-American inmates fighting with about 100 African-American prisoners.”
The melee involved nearly one-third of the 1,250 inmates in the Whetstone Unit of Arizona State Prison Complex in Tucson. Although the prison reacted quickly to shut down the fracas, five prisoners suffered injuries severe enough to require transport to a hospital. More prisoners were treated at the prison.
Two members of the staff also suffered minor injuries.
A fight between 200 inmates broke out in the Santa Rita Unit of the same prison in September, according to a report by Domenico Nicosia for The Arizona Republic. On that occasion, Lamoreaux said that the fight was under control within half an hour.
Despite the speed of the response, two prison officers as well as 11 inmates had to be hospitalized as a result of their injuries.
If anyone knows what is causing the prisoners to occasionally break out in these large-scale fights that might almost be considered riots, no one is saying. The sheer size of the state prison in question might have a bearing. Smith said, “The prison currently houses 5,134 inmates, 1,242 of them in the 1,250-bed capacity mimimum-security Whetstone Unit.”
Racial tension in Arizona’s jails and prisons may also play a role. Last year, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio went on trial before US District Judge G. Murray Snow for the practice of racial profiling, according to a report by William Hermann for Business Week. That trial ended when the judge said that he needed more data before he came to a conclusion, but many Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants suspected Arpaio of singling out Hispanic drivers for traffic stops.
The US Department of Justice has also investigated the Phoenix, AZ area sheriff for possible racial profiling.
However, the conditions in a minimum security unit of a state prison in Tucson are not likely to be the same as the controversial “tent city” jail in Maricopa County, so the ultimate cause of the fighting is currently unknown. What do you think sparked 400 inmates to start brawling?
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Mar 4, 2013
I think criminals sparked it.
Mar 4, 2013
The staff pit the races against each other to keep the inmates from fighting the staff. It is easier if they are fighting each other that when they fight the system, and the staff use that to good advantage. If all the races got together and wanted to make changes the A.D.O.C would have to bring in help to get control back. None of the inmates have figured that one out yet. I once saw a situation like this break out at Buckeye and the Captain on duty was about the only staff out in the mix. It was just about to go all out brawl when the head white guy on the yard took a swing at the head mexican guy and the captain pushed everybody back and said one on one everybody back and they did. It was the only thing he could have said in the situation and it worked. They fought all out for about 3 min and then it was over. They cuffed the 2 guys up and took em to the hole for a bit then out later that day or the next. The problem got fixed quickly and everybody went back to being friends over the next few days but it can blow up over anything at any min. It is usually money or dope but it can be anything. The time at Buckeye it was about both.
Mar 4, 2013
they probaly had piers morgan on the tv and they wouldn, t change the channel so they fought to change the channel.
Mar 4, 2013
Fuck ADC
Mar 4, 2013
I was there what fun we had.
Mar 4, 2013
everyone has a seed of racism in them, in prison it probably grows quicker. Stick 5,000 guys in prison with no sex and the racial tensions will rise. If you are a multiple offender you should be shipped back to your home country and save me my tax dollars. If you commit murder you should be killed on principle. You should be thankful enough as a u.s. prisoner that you can get 3 meals a day and an education. We should turn our prisons into what they should be, a dark dank basement where ypu will die with no freedoms at all. If we can take anything from a third world country it is treat an animal like an animal. There is no such thing as rehabillatation because youre crutch is I'm a product of society. If your society sucks then help make a positive change not a negative one. Hate is hate I don't care where you are from. Help me not the convicts.
Mar 4, 2013
wwhen you have niggers you have fights.
Mar 4, 2013
heebhamr13 you are a sick individual and the country would be safer if you were locked away soemwhere
Mar 4, 2013
The last line of the story.
"What do you think sparked 400 inmates to start brawling?"
I think it was race baiting crappy journalism by Elaine Radford that caused the brawl.
Mar 4, 2013
Please pray for Donald Nelson. He can't help himself because he think like an inbreed. Him an his sister had nothing else to do that Saturday night after taking a bath together in that foot tub.
Mar 5, 2013
White piece of shit