MASON, Tenn. – Correctional officials say 35 inmates from Vermont being held in a West Tennessee prison are on lockdown after refusing to get into their cells and damaging property.
Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the West Tennessee Detention Facility in Mason, about 35 miles northeast of Memphis, said in a news release that around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday the male inmates refused to return to their cells for the night and began damaging property inside their housing unit.
Melissa Nuce, a spokeswoman for the facility, said guards used a chemical grenade to subdue the inmates and get them into their cells. She said no staff or inmates were injured.
Nuce said Thursday that the cause of the incident is still under investigation. The Vermont inmates remain on lockdown, but the rest of the prison is not, she said.