EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) – There has been another inmate disturbance at a troubled Kansas prison, a senior union official said, in at least the fourth incident at the facility over the last three months.
Robert Choromanski, executive director of the Kansas Organization of State Employees, told The Associated Press late Friday that a Special Security Team was called to the prison earlier in the evening after 30 inmates refused to stand down. He said the information came from a prison employee who was monitoring emergency communications. No other details were immediately available.
Todd Fertig, Kansas Department of Corrections spokesman, could not immediately be reached for comment. He told the Kansas City Star that two inmates were wounded at El Dorado earlier Friday, one with “several puncture wounds.” He says no employees were injured.
He did not respond to a question from the Star about the reported evening disturbance.
The El Dorado Correctional Facility, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Wichita, has become a dangerous place to work since state officials began transferring some of the most dangerous criminals to the facility earlier this year, guards told AP earlier this week. They said the facility was tense because of overcrowding of inmates, a shortage of staff including guards, and shifts as long as 16 hours a day.