Three correctional officers at the U.S. Penitentiary in Lompoc were in stable condition Wednesday night at Lompoc Hospital after being stabbed by inmates, according to penitentiary spokesman Joe Henderson.
In a statement released just hours after the stabbings, Warden Al Herrera said two inmates Jesse Blevins and Robby Murphy
Robby Murphy ADX
assaulted the correctional officers as the guards were trying to put the inmates in their cells in the prison/s Special Housing Unit. Blevins and Murphy are Members of the Aryan Brotherhood. He said the officers suffered "puncture wounds" but did not elaborate on the severity of their injuries.
"The inmates were immediately subdued and sustained no injuries," Herrera said. The penitentiary was then locked down 7 a state of increased security in which inmates are confined to their cells 7 until the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and the FBI can investigate the event, he added.
Emergency units from Santa Barbara County, Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Lompoc Fire Department, as well as at least three ambulances, were dispatched at 5:12 p.m. Wednesday to the penitentiary in the 3900 block of Klein Boulevard, according to Battalion Chief Woody Enos of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
Firefighters and paramedics were at the prison for 15 minutes and were originally told that they would be taking four people to the hospital, Enos said. No information on the fourth person was available.
Wednesday/s stabbings come on the heels of a June 1 melee at the penitentiary in which at least eight correctional workers and one inmate were injured after a group of inmates refused to follow the orders of guards. None of those injuries were life-threatening, according to a statement released by Herrera several days after the incident.
The prison guards/ union has disputed the warden/s account, claiming that more than eight officers were hurt.
Federal prison officials and the FBI are investigating the riot, but race and crowding did not appear to be a factor, a prison spokesman said in June. The high-security facility has a population of 1,349, about 300 above its rated capacity.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents the penitentiary/s correctional officers, alleges that Herrera mishandled the riot by cleaning up the scene before FBI agents arrived to investigate the disturbance. The union alleges that vital evidence was destroyed by the cleanup.
The law firm representing the union, the Ontario-based Administrative Law Group, also contends that Herrera has cut staffing levels and put correctional officers in danger. As a result, the union charges, violence has increased at the prison because inmates know there is not enough staff on duty to control them.
* Staff writer Mark Abramson can be reached at 736-2313, Ext. 126, or by e-mail at mabramson@pulitzer.net.
Oct. 16, 2003
