Nation IN BRIEF / FLORIDA : Nine Guards Injured in Prison Rampage

Nine guards were injured in a short riot at a prison in Raiford, Fla. Inmates rampaged after guards chased down and tackled a prisoner who was masturbating near the exercise yard at Union Correctional Institution, authorities said. The inmate was handcuffed by five or six officers in view of many of the 300 inmates gathered in the yard. “Some of those inmates who were observing the incident . . . took advantage of that incident as a means for them to assault the correctional officers,” prison Supt. Dennis O’Neill said. “We believe there were 20 or 25 inmates involved.” Inmates threw chunks of concrete and two-way radios they had grabbed from the guards. Eight guards were treated at Shands Hospital at Starke and one was treated at the prison’s medical clinic. The prison 35 miles northeast of Gainesville was locked down and 12 inmates were sent to solitary confinement.