Jail seized by inmates for 7 hours
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, September 7, 2004
ROCHESTER (AP) &045; Inmates seized control of part of the Olmsted County jail for nearly seven hours Sunday after they were told they’d have to double up in their cells, authorities said.
But the prisoners went scurrying back to their cells and offered no resistance when a SWAT team stormed the unit around 4:15 p.m., Sheriff Steven Borchardt said.
&uot;There was more testosterone than brains, and that is what took over in this situation,&uot;
Borchardt said.
Nobody was injured, and nobody was taken hostage, but inmates broke tables, smashed vending machines and damaged an electronic door in the common area they shared.
Borchardt said the trouble started about 9:30 a.m. when 72 inmates were told they would have to be double-bunked because of a housing shortage. The prisoners were told to return to their cells so that jail staff could complete the move. About half of the inmates complied, but others objected and started causing trouble, he said.
&uot;They didn’t want to go to their cells while we made the prisoner move, and a small group of them just flat said ‘We’re not going to go’ and got violent about it,&uot; he said. &uot;And then enough others joined in that it became necessary for staff to vacate the housing unit because they rapidly lost control of it.&uot;
Three staffers were on duty at the time &045; one more than usual.
The sheriff said there was a housing shortage because the jail had taken in several inmates from neighboring counties. He said those prisoners started the trouble, then others from Olmsted County joined in.
The jail’s recreation room was extensively damaged and may not be usable for several weeks, he said.
Operations in other sections of the jail were not affected.
The 148-bed jail was built in 1993. It’s part of the Olmsted County Government Center, which houses the sheriff’s department, Rochester police, and the city and county governments.
Borchardt said the jail has had very few incidents since it opened.
Investigators will watch videotapes of the incident to determine who was involved, and those inmates will face criminal charges, he said.