Bristol County Sheriff’s Office photo.

As smoke clears from Dartmouth HoC riot, details emerge, over $150,000 in damage

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At approximately 9:30am, Friday morning a riot broke out at the Dartmouth House of Corrections after inmates in a housing unit allegedly decided that they were not going to be relocated elsewhere in the facility.

The relocation of inmates was taking place after nationally recognized expert on suicide prevention in correctional facilities Lindsay M. Hayes expert review in March concluded that the facility take steps to make it more suicide-resistant.

Bristol County Sheriff’s Office staff tried to contain the full-blown riot over the subsequent hours and the Dartmouth Fire Department was called in at one point. “These things can happen at any time, they really can,” Sheriff Paul Heroux said. “Our No. 1 goal was to de-escalate without a showing of force. We had to do so, but without any injuries to prisoners or corrections officers, so I consider that a win.”

Apparently, the source of the agitation for the inmates revolved around rumors that not only were they going to be relocated but their recreation time an visitation time were going to be seriously reduced.

At 2:17 p.m., officials announced that all staff were accounted for and there were no staff hostages. It was also believed that inmates had not taken other inmates as hostage.

At 4:11 p.m., it was announced that one of the two units involved was under control and there were no injuries in the operation.

At 5:19 p.m., it was revealed that both units were calm, and officials were finalizing inmate movement to conclude today’s incident response.

Damage was done to two of the units and inmates were attempting to take them over earlier in the day. Damage was reported to be in the $100,000-$200,000 range and included central control, windows, fans, beds, security cameras were ripped down or covered up, and fires were set.

Sheriff Heroux stated that the incident in the first unit involved 75-80 inmates with 17 ringleaders that issued a list of demands. Once the unit was under control, the ringleaders were relocated throughout the state. He didn’t characterize the incident as a riot and stated that use of force was minimal.

The second unit had 63 inmates in it and that incident was much milder and Heroux stated that later inmates were cleaning up after themselves.

Heroux announced recently that all inmate suicides involved bunk beds in the facility. The information came to light after Lindsay Hayes, who headed the U.S. Justice Department’s only nationwide reviews of correctional suicides, conducted a review.

According to Heroux, in the future, video of the incident will be released.

About Michael Silvia

Served 20 years in the United States Air Force. Owner of New Bedford Guide.

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