Dead, 5 Injured In ‘Inmate Disturbance’ At Cimarron Correctional Facility In

Three inmates are dead and five have been hospitalized after a riot at the Cushing prison, officials say.

Steve Owen of Nashville, Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America says staff at Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing quelled an inmate disturbance around 4:40 p.m. Saturday.

Owen, who did not disclose the reason behind the disturbance, said the injured inmates were sent to hospital for treatment while no prison staff member was injured. No names have been released.

Download our free app for Apple and Android and Kindle devices. Local officials are investigating the incident, the cause of which has not been determined.

The prison is on lockdown.

The Tulsa World reports a welfare check was also conducted on all of the inmates in the facility and the local law enforcement along with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections were immediately notified of the incident.

The incident occurred in a medium-security portion of the prison, said state corrections spokeswoman Terri Watkins. While prisons have an obligation to attempt to protect their inmates, it remains a very risky situation when thousands of violent offenders are housed together.

The Cimarron Correctional Facility houses about 1,600 inmates, she said. Eleven prisoners were taken to hospitals after the fight and the facility was placed on lockdown.

Three inmates were pronounced dead. No correctional workers were injured, The Associated Press reported.