Sheriff says gang started deadly prison riot

JACKSON, Miss. – A gang fight in a prison for illegal immigrants quickly escalated into a riot involving as many as 300 inmates, some lashing out with sticks or homemade knives as the uprising spread through the sprawling prison, a sheriff said.

A guard was beaten to death and at least 20 other people were injured. The riot began Sunday afternoon and lasted into the night, with inmates dragging mattresses and wood to an outdoor recreation yard to set ablaze, Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield said.

While law enforcement agencies from several counties waited outside the Adams County Correctional Facility in Natchez, authorities inside responded with tear gas and tactical units. They slowly corralled the inmates into a yard and searched them. By 2:45 a.m. Monday, all prisoners were back in their cells and the prison was locked down.

Mayfield said it’s not clear if the violence began within a gang or it was a dispute between rival groups, but “once it got started, it spread like wildfire.”

“They had makeshift weapons, broom handles, mop handles, anything they could pull apart, trashcan lids for shields, anything they could grab,” Mayfield said.

The prison holds nearly 2,500 low-security inmates, said prison spokeswoman Emilee Beach.

The facility is privately owned by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America.

Catlin Carithers, who joined CCA in 2009 and was a senior correctional officer, was beaten during the mayhem, Mayfield said.

He had been trained in recent years as part of the prison’s special response team and was called into work Sunday to help with the uprising, Clark said.

More than two dozen officers were held hostage or were trapped at some point, the sheriff said. At least 17 prison employees were treated for various injuries and three inmates were hurt.