10 Guards Hurt After 2 Prison Fights

Ten corrections officers went to the hospital after being attacked by inmates in two separate fights at a maximum-security drug rehabilitation center in a prison, officials said.

One of the guards suffered an 8-inch cut on his forehead and another injured his back in the fights Wednesday afternoon, said Margot Bach, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections.

The fights involved 25 inmates in a yard at the drug treatment facility, which is next to Corcoran State Prison south of Fresno.

The first fight, involving nine inmates, may have been planned as a way to distract officers from an attack on another prisoner, who was later found with a large cut on his face and neck. Weapons made by the inmates were found nearby, Bach said.

As the prison staff tried to clear the yard and return the inmates to their cells, another group of nine inmates attacked some of the officers, Bach said. Seven others tried to join in the fray, she said.

The officers used pepper spray and gas, and fired wooden or rubber bullets in an effort to contain the prisoners, she said. The 16 inmates involved in the second brawl were transferred to Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad.

The incident came less than a week after three officers were stabbed in an assault by inmates at the “New Folsom” state prison.