Pennsylvania Prison Riot Ends; 3 Seriously Injured

A two-night rampage at a state prison ended Friday with a guard and two inmates seriously wounded, five hostages freed and much of the overcrowded institution destroyed or damaged by fire, authorities said.

There were no deaths or escapes, officials said, but more than 100 people were injured in the battle to take back the medium-security prison. Police officers firing guns and tear gas stormed a kitchen building as they began taking back control of the prison Friday morning, officials said.

Corrections Department spokesman Ken Robinson announced that officials were in control nearly 15 hours after inmates somehow freed themselves during a lockdown imposed because of a seven-hour riot Wednesday.

State policemen in riot gear and wielding shotguns pushed surrendering or captured prisoners to the ground, holding them face-down in the grass of a prison courtyard.

The uprising left Pennsylvania corrections officials scrambling to find cells for 960 prisoners from the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill, which was 45% over its capacity at 2,600 inmates, Atty. Gen. Ernie Preate said. The state prison system as a whole is 48% over capacity.

The Corrections Department said inmates were being sent to the Graterford, Mercer, Pittsburgh, Smithfield and Waymart state prisons.

Fourteen of 31 buildings were gutted by fire, Robinson said.

An 18-year-old inmate was in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the upper torso, said Marianne Benjamin, a spokeswoman for Polyclinic Medical Center in Harrisburg.

A 24-year-old inmate was listed in serious condition after surgery for a small-caliber gunshot wound to the abdomen, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center spokesman Steve Bortner said.

A 41-year-old guard was in serious condition at the medical center with multiple stab wounds to the back, the spokesman said.

Only four hours before violence broke out a second time, Supt. Robert M. Freeman had said the first night’s problems might have been linked to a decision to forbid families to bring food to inmates during extended visits. He said also that inmates were upset by a change in the way they received medical care.