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| Inmates lose privileges, protest |
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11/17/2017
By Tom Marshall
Senior Advocate writer
No injuries were reported as result of a protest by inmates at the Montgomery County Regional Jail Nov. 5.
Twenty-two inmates who participated in the protest have lost privileges because of the incident. As part of that punishment they will be confined to their cells with no recreation or visitors, Jailer Eric Jones said.
The protest was broken up by the jail’s Cell Extraction Response Team, a SWAT-like unit.
“Everybody worked together as a team and got the situation resolved peacefully, which is the ultimate goal,” Jones said.
The incident began earlier that Sunday when jail staff received a tip that they could locate a “shank” in one of the cells, Jones said.
During the search of that particular cell, jail staff reportedly recovered a 6 to 8-inch shank sharpened on both ends making it a potentially dangerous weapon, he said.
No one took responsibility for the weapon, Jones said, so all 22 inmates from the cell lost privileges for four days, including no access to a television.
Sunday night the inmates reportedly began to protest by making threats and attempting to cover windows with objects from the cell, flooding the cell with water by plugging the toilet and placing soap on the floor, he said.
Jail administrators then activated the CERT to go into the cell to restore order, the jailer said. The unit was led by chief deputy Ian Roberts.
The Montgomery County Fire-EMS Dept. was called to be on standby outside in the parking lot in case there were injuries, Jones said. They were not needed.
When the CERT entered cell with a Taser Shield the inmates stood down, he said. The shield has a built in Taser that can be fired at subjects without having to leave the safety of the shield.
Jones credited CERT for resolving the situation without further incident.
“We’re fortunate to have the CERT team; a lot of the smaller jails don’t have it,” he said. “It diffuses a lot of situations before we have to go hands on with them.”
Six inmates were identified as making the reported threats, but all 22 will lose their privileges for six more days, Jones said. The matter is being dealt with in-house and no additional criminal charges are expected, he said.
Current charges against those involved in the incident range from non-support to drug trafficking, Jones said.
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