Three correctional guards were hospitalized Thursday afternoon after being assaulted by inmates in separate attacks at Arkansas prisons, including one that ended with barricaded inmates being removed from a barracks, authorities said.
In the first, an officer was attacked while in the housing area of the Maximum Security Unit in Tucker shortly before 2 p.m., according to a news release from the state Department of Correction. The officer reportedly sustained facial and head injuries and was taken to a nearby hospital.
About two-and-a-half hours later, two officers working at the Varner Unit in Grady were assaulted by several inmates, the agency said. One suffered multiple cuts and the other had a "single injury," according to the release. Both were reportedly taken to a nearby hospital.
After the assault, several inmates barricaded themselves in a barracks, prisons spokesman Solomon Graves said in a late Thursday news release. Authorities reportedly had to use "non-lethal force" to remove them, and some were sent to nearby hospitals for evaluation and treatment.
The spokesman said one of the officers had been released by 8:50 p.m. The other two were still being treated as of Thursday night.
According to the prisons agency, Arkansas State Police were notified of both assaults, and investigators were at both prisons Thursday afternoon.
The Maximum Security Unit is a 532-bed prison down the road from a separate facility, the Tucker Unit, in Jefferson County. The Varner Supermax Unit, the state's highest-security prison, is located about 45 miles to the southeast.
Graves said the attacks appear to be unrelated.
"Maintaining safe and secure facilities remains a constant focus of our entire department," he wrote in a text message. "As for steps directly stemming from today, we are still in response mode."
The Tucker Maximum Security Unit is the same facility where several inmates held three officers after snatching their keys and a Taser last month. In July, a guard at the prison fired warning shots into the air after two guards and an inmate were attacked.
*CORRECTION: The officer at the Maximum Security Unit was attacked Thursday afternoon. A previous version of this story had an incorrect date.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter John Moritz and The Associated Press contributed to this story.