COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Inmates armed with homemade knives in a maximum-security prison fought each other for about four hours over territory and money before guards moved in to stop it, state officials said Monday.
Seven of the inmates died in the worst U.S. prison riot in a quarter-century.
An inmate who witnessed the violence told The Associated Press that bodies were "literally stacked on top of each other."
At least 17 prisoners were seriously injured at Lee Correctional Institution, South Carolina prisons chief Bryan Stirling said at a news conference Monday.
The first fight started in a dorm about 7:15 p.m. Sunday, and the guards on the scene, who were outnumbered, backed out and called for support.
Stirling said the fight appeared to be contained before starting in two other dorms.
The first response team did not enter the site of the first fight until 11:30 p.m., Stirling said, adding that the inmates gave up peacefully.
"We are not going to just send one or two officers in there," Stirling said.
"We're going to gather a force that is safe for all our officers, and we're going to go in and we're going to take that dorm back with force. And if there's any resistance, we'll be able to put that resistance down immediately."
The prisoner who saw the riot exchanged messages with AP on the condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to have a cellphone and fears retribution from other inmates.
He said he saw several attackers taunt a rival gang member who was badly injured.
"I just saw three dead on the sidewalk outside of my unit. One guy is still alive and breathing, but just barely," the inmate said.
The riot was the latest violence in the South Carolina prisons system, where at least 13 other inmates have been killed by fellow prisoners since the start of 2017.
It was the most inmates slain in a single riot in the U.S. since nine prisoners and a guard died in 1993 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, said Steve Martin, a consultant who helps the federal government monitor prison systems.
The inmate who spoke to AP said that many cell door locks were already broken before the riot and that he and other prisoners roamed around freely at the prison in Bishopville, located 40 miles east of Columbia.
"The COs [corrections officers] never even attempted to render aid, nor quell the disturbance," he said.
"They just sat in the control bubble, called the issue in, then sat on their collective asses."
Most of the slain inmates were stabbed with homemade knives or slashed, while the remainder appeared to have been beaten, Lee County Coroner Larry Logan said. Stirling said an investigation would determine if any other type of weapon was used.
The slain were serving anywhere from 10 years to life in prison and their crimes ranged from murder to burglary to trafficking crack cocaine.
The youngest was 28 years old, while the oldest was 44.
The injured inmates required medical attention outside the prison, which made it more difficult for authorities to restore order, Stirling said.
The maximum-security facility in Bishopville houses about 1,500 inmates, and there were 44 guards there when the first fight started.
Gov. Henry McMaster commended Stirling's response, saying that the riot was "unfortunate" but that flare-ups among criminals were inevitable.
"We know that prisons are places where people who have misbehaved on the outside go for rehabilitation, and also to take them from the general population," he said.
"It's not a surprise when we have violent events take place inside prison."
McMaster said he was outraged the state can't jam cellphone signals in prisons, saying the phones helped stir the trouble.
"There are prisons around the country -- state prisons, federal prisons all -- that would be safer with this jamming," he said.
Stirling said officials planned to meet next month with the cellphone industry to talk about solutions, but "until that's done, the folks that are incarcerated are going to continue their criminal ways from behind bars."
Information for this article was contributed by Meg Kinnard and Jeffrey Collins of The Associated Press; and by Matthew Haig of The New York Times.
A Section on 04/17/2018