A disturbance at the Pike County jail had cell blocks on lockdown and elicited a large response from multiple law enforcement agencies Tuesday, but the situation was resolved by mid-afternoon, Sheriff Wally Jones said.
Jones said the disturbance began around 8:30 a.m., but the incident that sparked it occurred Monday when jail officials intercepted a letter laced with drugs.
Jones said two inmates who were expecting to receive the letter were upset when it got taken and told corrections officers “if anybody comes in they’re cutting them.”
The inmates wrapped their bodies and heads with towels to prevent Taser barbs from penetrating skin and pepper spray from getting in their eyes or causing difficulty breathing, then they displayed shanks to jail staff.
“They covered up cameras and things like that,” Jones said, adding that the single cellblock “was in an offensive posture.”
The Mississippi Highway Patrol’s 30-man Special Operations Group was among the responding agencies, and dozens of officers descended on the jail property.
“When the SOG team went in, the two main violators surrendered without incident, but the rest of the pod refused to come out,” Jones said.
The two instigators had already received their sentences and were awaiting transfer to a state correctional facility, and Jones said they were sent away as soon as the situation was under control.
He said the team went in the cellblock to remove all of the inmates and three or four resisted.
“Everything went without incident. It was just a couple that was acting like boneheads,” Jones said.
The sheriff said a shakedown of the ell blocks turned up “a couple of shanks.”
“Nobody’s been hurt, not to my knowledge,” he said.
Jones said law enforcement officers delayed their entry into the cell blocks, opting to give a chance for tempers to calm among the inmates instead.
“They were trying to entice us to go back there and do some things,” he said earlier in the day, as the incident was still ongoing. “We’ve been letting them calm down rather than letting them get hyped up.”
Jones said around 12:30 p.m. that the incident was ongoing but “under control.”
By early afternoon, authorities had about a couple of dozen inmates gathered in the exercise yard of the jail, most sitting along the fence.
Meanwhile, a Mississippi Highway Patrol helicopter sat parked in a field along the north side of the jail, where groups of law enforcement officers were clustered. Jones said it was used to transport high-ranking officials with the SOG from North Mississippi.
A K-9 unit from the Mississippi Highway Patrol also was called in, and ambulances were on standby, with one parked in the jail sally port.
The jail has been a source of contention — and lawsuits — for county officials.
More than 30 lawsuits have been filed against the county alleging inhumane conditions at the 32-year-old facility, including overcrowding.
Officials have worked to reduce the inmate population to near or below the jail’s 132-bed capacity since the beginning of the year, but some still question whether the jail is beyond repair or safe use.
Pike County supervisors were on track to proceed with financing and building a new jail just north of the existing one, but those plans got shelved in July after a vocal backlash from residents, who said the estimated 8- to 10-mill tax hike that would be required to build the $35 million-plus jail was too much to shoulder.
