The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reports that eight corrections officers and one inmate were hospitalized on Wednesday as a result of a massive disturbance at a California prison.
Two hundred inmates at Ironwood State Prison in Blythe, according to authorities, charged the officers while wielding fists and boulders.
Wednesday at approximately 10:00 a.m., while officers were escorting an inmate involved in a contraband investigation, a violent outburst broke out.
The inmates reportedly rushed the corrections officers in an attempt to subdue the inmate they were escorting after he or she headbutted a staff member.
Authorities said in a statement that after officers discharged warning rounds from their rifles, they employed chemical agents and nonlethal impact rounds to quell the disturbance.
Following hospital treatment, all eight corrections officers and the inmate who sustained injuries in the fracas were subsequently discharged.
The severity of the injuries sustained by the corrections officers and the detainee could not be determined.
As their investigation continues, authorities reportedly have identified at least thirty prisoners who had direct involvement in the disturbance.
East of Los Angeles, Ironwood is a minimum-to-medium security prison that accommodates approximately 2,500 inmates.
Following Wednesday’s disturbance, California issued a statewide prison threat warning, which prompted a 24-hour statewide threat assessment due to the confinement of inmates to their cells.
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