Northpoint Release Cause of Riot

[Waxd0g]

89.3 WFPL | Corrections Department Releases Cause of Northpoint Riot

Corrections Department Releases Cause of Northpoint Riot

November 20, 2009, 4:15 pm

Kentucky corrections officials say inmates rioted at Northpoint Training Center in August because of a lockdown and tight new restrictions on inmate movements.

Three days into a lockdown that followed an August 18th prison yard fight, Northpoint officials decided to make permanent, new restrictions on inmate movements.

The decision led to a riot that left several buildings torched and eight inmates and staff with minor injuries. That’s the findings of a Critical Incident Review Team that investigated the riot, says Justice Secretary Michael Brown.

“It’s our belief that that restriction of freedom, what little freedom they have in their own world, was going to be so significantly changed,” says Brown, “and in their minds so suddenly changed – that it boiled over.”

Brown says there have been complaints about the prison’s food, but food was not a primary cause of the riot. Efforts to rebuild the prison continue.

The 12-hundred inmate facility currently holds 485 inmates. The rest are housed in other state prisons.