Chris Lieberman, FISM News
The nation’s more than 120 federal prisons went on lockdown Monday evening after a gang fight in a Texas prison left two inmates dead.
The fight took place between rival gangs shortly before noon (CT) on Monday in USP Beaumont, a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas. The AP reported that the brawl involved members of the deadly street gang MS-13, according to two anonymous sources within the prison. The altercation prompted a nationwide lockdown of the federal prison system in order to prevent retaliation by the gangs involved in other prisons as the news spread.
“In an abundance of caution, the Bureau of Prisons is securing our facilities as a temporary measure to ensure the good order of our institutions,” said Emery Nelson, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) in a statement on Monday. “We anticipate this security measure will be short-lived. The BOP will continue to monitor events carefully and will adjust its operations accordingly as the situation evolves.”
Four inmates were hospitalized as a result of the fight, with two, Guillermo Riojas and Andrew Pineda, pronounced dead at the hospital. Riojas, 54, was serving a 38-year prison sentence for carjacking and interfering with interstate commerce. Pineda, 34, was serving a 6-year sentence for racketeering, and was part of a prison gang known as the Mexican Mafia. Both had been involved in prison violence before. No staff members were injured in the altercation.
The prison lockdown means that inmates will be kept to their cells for the day and all visitations are canceled. However, most federal facilities were already not allowing visitors due to a spike in COVID-19 cases in prisons.
National federal prison lockdowns are somewhat rare. In recent years, there were lockdowns in April 2020 at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, after the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021, and just before the inauguration of President Biden.
Monday’s violence is just the latest issue to plague the federal prison system in recent months. Embattled BOP director Michael Carvajal announced his resignation from the post in January after his leadership came under fire over a series of inmate escapes and deaths, widespread employee corruption, and mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Beaumont prison in particular has been noted for its lax security policies, with local law enforcement joking that the prison has an “open-door policy,” according to a June AP report. One gaffe resulted in four escaped inmates at Beaumont going undetected for 12 hours despite three overnight inmate counts taking place during that period.
A Department of Justice Inspector General report found several glaring security flaws at Beaumont, including outer doors that “were unsecured, in that they were unlocked, were unmanned, were not equipped with surveillance cameras, and had either nonfunctioning alarms or alarms that could be manipulated by inmates, even during times when inmates were not permitted to move freely within the [prison].” Beaumont points to severe staffing shortages as the cause of the issues.
In November 2007, two Beaumont inmates stabbed another prisoner to death after breaking out of their handcuffs, shanking their escorting officer, and stealing their cell keys. Then in February 2008, a prisoner was strangled in his cell by two other inmates, including the co-founder of the prison gang Dead Man Incorporated.
Beaumont prison currently holds 1372 male prisoners. Nationwide lockdowns remained in effect as of 12:00 pm (EST) Tuesday.