An incident at the Silverdale correctional facility Wednesday evening delayed Hamilton County courts Thursday morning as facility staff dealt with the aftermath of what some inmates called an hours-long riot.
Hamilton County EMS, police and the Chattanooga Fire Department responded to the jail just after 6 p.m. Wednesday night.
Silverdale spokeswoman Bianca Hudson confirmed there was a "disruptive incident" Wednesday but declined to give any details about what it was.
She said the jail would release additional details on Wednesday, but never did. It's unclear whether anyone was hurt, how many inmates were involved, what prompted the incident or what steps officers took to end the incident. It's also unknown whether any officers were hurt.
The interior of the Silverdale Correctional Facility in Chattanooga is seen in this file photo.Inmates in the jail say the incident started around 4 p.m. and lasted five hours.
On Thursday morning, court proceedings slowed down because of the incident, multiple sources confirmed. Some courtrooms were delayed by at least an hour because of delays in transporting inmates from Silverdale to the court.
Bailiffs in court said the day was one of the most stressful they'd had in weeks, due to the schedule reshuffling.
Silverdale has the capacity to house just over 1,000 male and female inmates.
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