Jules
Former Member
By every account, the New Year's Day 2005 fight between inmates and guards at Bayside State Prison was terrifying, with broomsticks and clothing irons used as weapons and blood splattering the floor and walls.
But inmates and guards tell vastly different stories about the scope of the fight and what happened after it ended. Guards say they were attacked by unruly inmates in a prison riot. Inmates allege the guards abused them after the fight was over.
"All of us got beat up. You hear me? Everybody down there got beat up. A lot of people didn't have nothing to do with it got beat up," inmate Ernie Ford said in a telephone interview from New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, where he was moved after the Bayside fight. Ford, serving five years for dealing in drugs and fake drivers' licenses, was found guilty of the prison charge of disruptive conduct.
Guards and prisoners agree that the fight began when 25-year-old convicted drug dealer Omar McCray, who was indicted for his alleged role in the fight, was stopped at the entrance to a unit where inmates live in open pods rather than locked cells. Guards took away contraband chicken he was carrying and, within minutes, guards and inmates were fighting.
Guards said McCray called for help from members of the Bloods gang, yelling "Bloods out, rat-a-tat, Bloods out." Guards radioed a distress signal and 54 officers poured in from other parts of the prison.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/12/31/prison.brawl.ap/index.html
You couldn't pay me enough to be a guard in a prison. I give those that are a HUGE hand. They certainly put their lives at risk every day they work.
But inmates and guards tell vastly different stories about the scope of the fight and what happened after it ended. Guards say they were attacked by unruly inmates in a prison riot. Inmates allege the guards abused them after the fight was over.
"All of us got beat up. You hear me? Everybody down there got beat up. A lot of people didn't have nothing to do with it got beat up," inmate Ernie Ford said in a telephone interview from New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, where he was moved after the Bayside fight. Ford, serving five years for dealing in drugs and fake drivers' licenses, was found guilty of the prison charge of disruptive conduct.
Guards and prisoners agree that the fight began when 25-year-old convicted drug dealer Omar McCray, who was indicted for his alleged role in the fight, was stopped at the entrance to a unit where inmates live in open pods rather than locked cells. Guards took away contraband chicken he was carrying and, within minutes, guards and inmates were fighting.
Guards said McCray called for help from members of the Bloods gang, yelling "Bloods out, rat-a-tat, Bloods out." Guards radioed a distress signal and 54 officers poured in from other parts of the prison.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/12/31/prison.brawl.ap/index.html
You couldn't pay me enough to be a guard in a prison. I give those that are a HUGE hand. They certainly put their lives at risk every day they work.