Alaska Department of Corrections officials say a disturbance at Seward’s Spring Creek Correctional Center on Monday night began when inmates were ordered to make beds and clean rooms.
Director of institutions Bryan Brandenberg says that inmates in the segregation unit were not happy with a directive by acting superintendent Dean Marshall that they would participate in morning inspection. Brandenberg compared what happened next to children throwing a tantrum.
About 14 segregation inmates late Monday night yelled, broke porcelain toilets and sinks and flooded cells. The disturbance ended about nine hours later on Tuesday morning. Brandenberg says just one officer was on duty in the 32-man unit.
According to officials, six prisoners suffered cuts or scrapes in the incident on Monday. One inmate was pepper-sprayed when he did not cooperate.
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
