Eight corrections officers and one prisoner were hospitalized after roughly 200 prisoners engaged in a riot at California’s Ironwood State Prison in Blythe.
According to KCRA, the 200-person riot at the Riverside County prison resulted in a threat assessment at every prison in the state last Wednesday. The riot started at approximately 10 a.m. during a contraband investigation as prison guards were escorting a prisoner across the yard.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told KCRA that the riot started after one of the prisoners headbutted an Ironwood State Prison staff member and “approximately 200 incarcerated people on the yard rushed toward the officers attacking them with fists and rocks.”
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told KCRA that corrections officers used “chemical agents and non-lethal impact rounds” to regain control of the prison after firing a rifle warning round.
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Officials confirmed that eight corrections officers and one prisoner were transported to a local hospital after sustaining injuries in the prison riot. According to CBS News, the nine individuals were transported to a different medical facility for a “higher level of care.”
The eight corrections officers and the prisoner were all released from the hospital the following day; however, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not provide an update regarding the extent of the injuries.
According to KCRA, 30 prisoners have already been identified for their direct involvement in the riot at Ironwood State Prison, which is classified as a minimum-medium security facility located east of Los Angeles in California’s desert. The facility was first operated in 1994 and provides security for roughly 2,500 male prisoners. An investigation into Wednesday’s incident at Ironwood State Prison remains ongoing.
KCRA reported that Wednesday’s riot resulted in California issuing a statewide prison threat warning, as well as a one-day statewide threat assessment that confined prisoners to their cells.
