Prison Disturbance May Have Been Downplayed

A newspaper says an emergency log book suggests the Kansas Department of Corrections perhaps downplayed an inmate disturbance last month at a prison.

Kansas prison officials had reported that no violence occurred and no weapons were accessed by inmates during the June 29 incident at the El Dorado Correctional Facility.

But The Kansas City Star reports a log book shows there were two fights involving separate groups of inmates, at least one inmate had a weapon and at least one fire broke out. The head of the union representing prison workers has said inmates, while refusing to return to their cell houses, controlled parts of the prison.

Corrections spokesman Todd Fertig says he hasn’t seen the log, and that no department weapons ever were possessed by the inmates.