A disturbance at the Bradley County Jail last month that a spokesman downplayed as one person acting up was in fact a protest by dozens of prisoners that resulted in a SWAT call-out, records show.
Multiple sources told the Times Free Press on June 27 that a major disturbance was happening at the jail. When the newspaper asked the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office for information, spokesman Brian Graves said the problem involved “an individual inmate which was handled swiftly [sic] and appropriately without incident.”
But dispatch records and officer logs show a dozen SWAT members, two police dogs and an ambulance were summoned to the jail around 12:30 p.m. that day and that “SWAT is about to make entry into D pod for a riot.”
In fact, there was no violence. Some or all of the 55 mostly federal prisoners in D pod – officers’ accounts differ – staged a sit-in over the quantity and quality of their meals.
The officer logs also show several corrections staff were in the pod and discussing the food problem with the inmates before they were ordered to get out and wait for the SWAT team and dogs.