Two guards were stabbed early Sunday morning at Hays State Prison, the local ticking time bomb.
Prison sources say the incident happened around 1 AM. One officer was stabbed in his shoulder from the rear, another was stabbed in the leg helping the first man. A third employee was beaten with a broom.
The inmates involved had their faces covered during the attack, but have been identified and transferred to the Hi-Max prison in Jacksonville. Hays’ SWAT team reclaimed that section of the prison and began extensive cell searches.
This is the fourth serious incident of violence at Hays in the last six weeks; two inmates were murdered behind bars on separate days in December, and another inmate was stabbed to death in the prison a week ago Friday. Special Cobra teams from Atlanta came, and went, but nothing really changed; It’s hard to do much in a prison with huge staff turnover, corrupt employees enabling inmates, broken door locks, and the state’s most violent men crammed in together.
This report about the dangerous conditions at Hays Prison was written and published before the stabbing. (It actually ran in Sunday’s paper, set in ink just as the stabbing occurred.) Reporters at the Times Free Press have either heard from the same prison employees who contacted LU, or heard from other employees saying the same things.
Employees at Hays who know they could lose their jobs for talking to the media, who normally wouldn’t go against the rules, are reaching out to LU and other media outlets because they’re at their wits’ ends. Insiders see nothing will ever be done until media attention drives the community to demand a change.
If the state doesn’t make changes – real changes like making repairs, increasing funding, and moving some inmates to other facilities – the prison is a ticking time bomb, not just for inmates and employees (as seen all too clearly this weekend) but also for the surrounding community. It’s only a matter of time before a mass riot leads to an escape.
Residents within a few hours’ walk of the prison should talk to their children and other family members about what to do if inmates do break out of Hays, and equip themselves as necessary if the unimaginable becomes reality.
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