The Associated Press
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Overcrowding and gang activity at the Luzerne County prison caused disturbances that led to a two-day lockdown over the weekend, a prison official said.
Trouble had been brewing the last couple weeks, but problems worsened Thursday when inmates became defiant and tried to push some corrections officers into a cell, deputy warden Sam Hyder said.
On Friday, more than a dozen inmates refused to return to their cells and some threatened to kill prison guards, Hyder said.
“When I have senior staff saying the hair on the back of their necks is standing up and that somebody is going to die in this facility, you know it’s bad,” he said. “It was the worst thing I witnessed in all my years of corrections.”
There were no serious injuries, but the prison held 42 inmate misconduct hearings, an unprecedented amount, Hyder said.
The lockdown and ban on visitation was lifted early Sunday morning.
The prison, built to accommodate 250 inmates, currently houses between 550 and 600.