INCOMPETENCE PILED UPON STUPIDITY

by Bob Walsh

There was a pretty good disturbance at the Maximum Security Unit of the Tucker prison in Arkansas on Monday. Several inmates overpowered staff and seized keys and a Taser. Those inmates had functional control of a section of the prison for several hours. At the time of the initial takeover about 25% of the prison security positions were not filled.

When the bus that transported the inmates to the Varner Supermax Unit after the incident was searched a large unspecified door key was found on the bus as well as a handcuff key.

Even more troubling is the source of the Taser. According to prison records Only Lieutenants and above are authorized to have access to Tasers. The offices who were grabbed should not have had one, and possibly in fact did not. So where did it come from?

The disturbance took place during recreation release. There were about 25 inmates on the unit when it was taken over. At least six and possibly eight inmates were involved in the actual takeover.

This was the second notable disturbance at the prison in the last month. On July 22 a "guard" fired shots when two staff members and an inmate were attacked by other inmates. The DOC did not know about this incident until it showed up in the newspapers. Whoops.

At the time of the incident on Monday there were 529 prisoners at the facility. It is budgeted 208 security positions. Of those positions 49 are not filled.