Union officials are warning of increased inmate-on-inmate violence at Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome.
During the last week of August and the first two weeks of September, five fights occurred at the prison with two involving weapons, according to New York State Corrections Officers & Police Benevolent Association. In these cases, both inmates were cut with edged weapons and struck with a broken broom handle.
As a result of the violence, both inmates were taken to Rome Hospital for treatment – one with lacerations to his nose, cheek, and chest along with a fractured nasal bone, the second with cuts to his face and head.
During searches, staff also recovered two makeshift weapons, 173 pills that tested positive for methamphetamines, and several sheets of paper soaked in an unknown liquid recovered during a pat frisk of an inmate.
Additionally, one visitor was arrested after allegedly trying to smuggle marijuana to an inmate during visitation hours.
“Thankfully in the chaos that continues at Mohawk prison, no staff were injured stopping the inmate fights but that is not always the case unfortunately. Drugs, weapons, and violence is a daily occurrence at most prisons and officers are overwhelmed having to work mandatory overtime to fill staffing shortages with no relief in sight. In one day at Mohawk, staff encountered one inmate twice under the influence of unknown drugs, the second time needing Narcan administered several times to revive him. In a number of inmate on inmate fights OC spray was needed to stop the fights when the fighting inmates refused all orders to stop. With record levels of violence, the system is broken and needs to be addressed immediately by our elected officials whose progressive policies have contributed to chaos. ”-stated Bryan Hluska, Central Region Vice President.
Earlier this month nine staff members were injured at Auburn Correctional Facility.
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