Guard suffers minor injury in disturbance at Arkansas prison; windows broken, fires set, official says

A correctional officer was injured Wednesday night after inmates at an Arkansas prison broke windows and ignited small fires, officials said.

A dozen inmates at the Varner Supermax Unit, a high security prison in Grady, began breaking barracks windows and setting small trash fires in a housing building around 10:30 p.m., according to an Arkansas Department of Corrections news release.

Correctional officers got control of the situation, and no inmates were hurt, the release said, though one officer reportedly received a minor injury which did not require hospitalization. Details on where and how that officer was injured as well as how long it took to stop the inmates' actions were unknown Thursday morning, said prison spokesman Solomon Graves.

After the broken glass and debris from the fires were cleaned up, prison operations continued as normal, Graves said. Inmates ate their scheduled breakfast this morning and went to work within the facility, he added.

Officials were assessing the damage to the prison Thursday morning and counting the number of windows that were fully or partially broken, Graves said. There was no estimate available yet for potential repair costs.

Graves said Varner authorities do not know why the disturbance occurred, adding an investigation is ongoing. Officials will review security footage, interview staff and talk to inmates who were involved, he said. Depending on those findings, the investigation might be moved to the central office for additional review, he added.

No decisions have been made about potential charges tied to the disturbance, Graves said.

The disturbance comes a little more than a month after an inmate at the prison was found dead in his cell, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported. Prison staff found Rodney Weston, 36, unconscious in his cell at 8 a.m. on Oct. 24.

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