The Nation - News from Jan. 7, 1986

Twenty officers armed with shotguns and tear gas stormed a cell house at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, rescuing seven guards taken hostage in a brief inmate uprising that may have been staged to cover reprisals against informers, officials said. Three inmates were found bloodied and locked in their cells when officers quelled the 90-minute uprising at the 152-year-old, maximum-security prison, said Corrections Director Hal Farrier. Warden Crispus Nix said the three apparently were attacked by inmates who considered them “snitches.”