Prison locked down after fights break out

The main prison facility at Airway Heights Corrections Center was under lockdown Friday, after four fights broke out among inmates Thursday.

No weapons were involved, but one injured inmate was taken to a Spokane hospital Thursday night. He was returned to the prison a few hours later for treatment at the facility’s medical unit. Other prisoners involved in the fights were treated at the corrections center’s on-site medical clinic.

Thirty-two inmates were put into segregation after the incidents. Prison officials and local police are interviewing prisoners to determine why the fights occurred and whether the attacks were organized or gang-related.

“When you get that many people fighting, it’s hard to tell who’s who,” said Sgt. Gregory Rogan of the Airway Heights Police Department, which is investigating whether any felony assaults occurred.

This is believed to be the first time the entire main facility of the prison has been locked down since the mid-1990s, prison spokeswoman Risa Klemme said in a Friday press conference.

Fights are not unusual at the prison, but the “rapid succession” of the four incidents led to a lockdown, which will continue as officials monitor inmates’ behavior and tone, Klemme said.

“The offender population appears to be calm at this time,” she said. “Our chief priority right now is to move out of lockdown. Lockdown isn’t something that we like to do.”

The lockdown order means that prisoners are confined to their cells. They are not allowed out for showers and are fed in their cells. Inmate work, education and volunteer programs have been halted and visitors are not allowed.

The first assault occurred at 1:40 p.m. in the indoor recreation area of the prison’s medium-security facility. The other three fights occurred in the dining area and in an inmate unit over the next several hours, Klemme said.

Prison Superintendent Maggie Miller-Stout ordered the main facility locked down at 7:20 p.m. Thursday, Klemme said.

It is unclear what triggered the fights.

“That’s part of what we’re doing right now, looking at what precipitated the event,” Klemme said. “We’re doing our intelligence-gathering.”

No correctional staffers were injured, Klemme said. The prison employs about 600 people.

A white paper sign taped to the glass door of the prison lobby Friday read, “Visitation is cancelled … Day with Dad has been postponed.”

There are 1,536 inmates at the corrections center’s main facilty, which opened in 1992.

The minimum-security unit, which houses about 600 additional inmates, was not affected by the lockdown and continued on a regular schedule.