State prison brawl injures more than 40 inmates

WATONGA, Okla. (AP) _ Two prisoners were seriously injured and 40 others were hurt after a brawl broke out in a recreation yard of a private prison Friday night. <br/><br/>The prison remained on lock-down

Sunday, May 16th 2004, 10:16 am

By: News On 6

WATONGA, Okla. (AP) _ Two prisoners were seriously injured and 40 others were hurt after a brawl broke out in a recreation yard of a private prison Friday night.

The prison remained on lock-down Saturday as officials at the Diamondback Correctional Facility investigated the incident.

The fight started at about 8:15 p.m. Friday among inmates from Arizona, according to a statement from the Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the medium-security prison.

Two inmates were flown to an Oklahoma City hospital for treatment Friday night. One inmate was listed in stable condition, the other was upgraded from critical to serious but stable condition Saturday, said Sandy Clark, a public information officer for the prison.

The prisoners' names or the extent of their injuries were not immediately released.

The other prisoners suffered ``mostly lacerations, that type of injury,'' Clark said.

Officials from Arizona had arrived at the facility Saturday afternoon to aid in the investigation.

``Our investigation is going to be ongoing for the next several days,'' said Louise Chickering, a spokeswoman for the company. ``We are currently interviewing all inmates that were out in the recreation yard at the time, and that's a long process.''

Chickering said a couple hundred inmates were using the recreational yard when the fight broke out.

She could not say what caused the fight, but said investigators were trying to determine whether it was gang-related.

``We do not know who the primary agitators were,'' Chickering said.

The Diamondback Correctional Facility houses about 2,050 prisoners from Arizona and Hawaii. Arizona inmates account for 1,199 of the inmates.

No Hawaii prisoners were involved in the fight. No Oklahoma inmates are housed at the facility located about 65 miles northwest of Oklahoma City.