‘Large-scale’ disturbance at Bristol County House of Corrections during inmate move, officials say

DARTMOUTH, Mass — Members of the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office responded to a “large-scale inmate disturbance” Friday when inmates at the county’s House of Corrections refused to leave their housing units.

The inmates were being moved to new units as the Dartmouth facility underwent renovations Friday morning to make it more suicide resistant, according to a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office.

“We had a volatile situation where we had as many as 75-80 inmates that were agitated and they also did a lot of damage,” said Sheriff Paul Heroux. He estimated the group of inmates caused approximately $100,000 to $200,000 worth of damage, based on early estimates.

The incident started around 9:40 a.m. after some inmates did not want to leave their units during the process, according to the Sheriff’s Office. By 11:30 a.m. the inmates had a list of demands.

Heroux said during a press conference Friday night that the incident involved two housing units within the jail.

Heroux said he responded in writing to a list of demands from inmates. Crews on the scene then made the decision to enter the housing units after Heroux said inmates tore up the piece of paper with his response on it.

In an update provided just after 4:10 p.m., the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office stated one of the units involved was under control. Authorities said they were continuing to “work on” an adjacent housing unit.

No staff or inmates were taken hostage at any point.

The 17 inmates who were the “ringleaders”, according to Heroux, were taken to other county jails throughout the state.

There was also damage done to a second housing unit, and three inmates from there were sent to jails in other counties.

There are about 600 inmates inside the minimum security prison.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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