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Sunday, September
12, 1999Inmates attack guardsBy KAREN VOYLESSun staff writer
RAIFORD -- A brief, violent outburst at Union Correctional Institution Saturday morning ended with nine officers injured and 12 inmates held in solitary confinement. The prison, located in Union County 13 miles west of Starke, was immediately secured in a "lock-down" after the melee, which prison Superintendent Dennis O'Neill said he believed was unplanned and opportunistic. "Every indication we have is that this was a spontaneous reaction to a use of force incident," O'Neill said. The incident that triggered the reaction began around 10:30 a.m. when a female correctional officer saw Lamar A. Miffin, 29, exposing himself and masturbating in an area near the recreational yard. When Miffin was ordered to stop and officers approached him, he ran. Miffin was tackled near the kitchen and dining hall area and was being handcuffed by five or six officers in view of many of the 300 inmates already in the recreational yard. "Some of those inmates who were observing the incident with Miffin took advantage of that incident as a means for them to assault the correctional officers," O'Neill said. "We believe there were 20 or 25 inmates involved and we have detained 12 of them so far. As we loosen up on the inmates and this lock-down ends, we anticipate additional information will surface about the identities of the others involved." The inmates crawled over and under a gate on a chain-link fence topped with a strand of razor wire that separated the recreational yard from the dining and kitchen area. Officers involved with subduing Miffin told O'Neill they didn't realize other inmates were coming at them until they were hit. When the other officers arrived, the ratio of inmates to officers was three to one. Capt. Steve Richardson was nearby and began observing the incident after six or seven inmates had begun their attack, O'Neill said. He and other officers immediately converged on the area to end the attack and the inmates made their way back into the general population on the recreation yard. During the attack, which lasted about three to five minutes, officers said inmates used chunks of concrete as weapons as well as radios they had pried away from the officers. "We had two radios virtually demolished," O'Neill said. "We had some that were apparently used both as offensive weapons by the inmates as well as defensive weapons by the officers." The most seriously injured officers were taken to Shands at Starke, but all were expected to be released by late Saturday or early Sunday. Sgt. Kevin Adkin, 38, was taken by ambulance to Shands. He was treated and released by 4 p.m. for significant trauma to his head and face. Sgt. Jimmy Ellison, 39, was being treated for strains and sprains to his hand and forearm. Sgt. P. N. Harris, 41, had a blunt trauma to his head and back. Sgt. L. R. Hopkins, 57, had a cut lip and trauma to his shoulder. Officer B. Addison, 34, had a cut lip, trauma to the forehead and unknown injuries to his ribs. Correctional Officer James Stripling, 48, had blunt trauma to the head and face and a cut lip. Correctional Officer J.T. Fanning, 52, suffered a blunt trauma to his rib cage as well as various lacerations and abrasions. Capt. Steve Richardson, 48, who was supervising the original incident - the use of force in apprehending Miffin - was hit with a blunt instrument on his head and face and was treated at the medical clinic at the prison. Also treated at the prison's medical clinic was Correctional Officer Rodney Criswell, 24, but his specific injuries were unclear late Saturday. "Of the 12 inmates already in administrative confinement, probably six have observable injuries no more serious than scratches and contusions and those scratches generally appear to be from going through the fence," O'Neill said. Before Saturday's melee, Miffin, 29, had a tentative release date of August 31, 2009. This is Miffin's second time through the prison system since 1989. His criminal record includes multiple burglaries and grand thefts, resisting an officer with violence, trafficking in stolen property and aggravated assault. Correctional officers said the inmate they believe was the ring leader of the attack was Henry C. Fountain, 31, who was sentenced to life in prison for a 1991 murder in Miami. He has been at Union since 1992. The life sentence handed down for that murder marked the fifth time that Fountain had been sent to prison in Florida since 1986. Fountain's prior convictions were for multiple burglaries, car thefts, robberies with firearms, possession of cocaine, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The names of the other inmates involved were not immediately available. Instead of wading though the approximately 300 inmates on the yard to look for the instigators and participants, officers ordered all inmates back to their bunks. By the time that order was given, officers had begun videotaping the events and additional officers had been called in to the prison. The original incident involving Miffin and the attack on the officers were not videotaped because they happened too quickly. What did get recorded was the clearing of the recreation yard, inmates being escorted from their cells to the medical center and inmates being escorted to administrative confinement cells. "At one point, we had at least three cameras running," O'Neill said. After the recreation yard was cleared, officers who had not been involved in the attack spent nearly four hours going from bunk to bunk looking at inmates for injuries, torn clothing or other indications they had been involved in a fight. They were also looking for inmates who were identified by name by the officers who were attacked. Officers said the atmosphere on the compound was very subdued immediately after the incident. That was due in large part to the strategy used to round up the suspects. As many as a dozen officers and a video camera were involved in escorting suspect inmates one at a time to administrative confinement. "We have also collected other evidence of undetermined use to us right now, but it may eventually be useful, like articles of clothing with blood on them left in some areas," O'Neill said. The alleged attackers initially appeared to represent a cross section of the prison: some were black and others white, while some were as young as their early 20s and at least one was nearing 50. There was at least one common thread, O'Neill said. At least half were cellmates and several had the same job assignments. "There was no indication of any gang affiliation," O'Neill said. "This was really something more of a clique - people who worked or lived together." As correctional officers and other prison employees trickled out of UCI's main entrance Saturday evening and walked to their cars and trucks, they said little about the turmoil inside the walls, stoically answering that they didn't know about it or immediately referred questions to prison administrators. Employees walked past one young woman waiting in the prison parking lot for her boyfriend, a correctional officer. The woman, an assistant manager at an area convenience store, would not give her name but said she had fallen asleep in her hot, tiny car expecting her boyfriend to come out around when the day shift ended at 4 p.m. "He's never late," she said at 4:30. It wasn't until the anxious woman talked to employees in the prison's main office that she learned that her boyfriend was one of many officers stuck in the prison because of the lock down. Then they broke the news that some officers had been injured. Looking at the woman's worried face, they phoned to make sure her boyfriend wasn't one of the injured but said they didn't know how long it would be before he could go home. Although her boyfriend has worked in prisons for seven years, the woman said he's never been through an incident like Saturday's. But, she said, that doesn't stop her from worrying, especially after this attack and tensions over recent problems at Florida State Prison about a mile down the road. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the murder of FSP inmate Frank Valdes, who died in July. Autopsy results indicate he was beaten, and nine correctional officers were immediately suspended after his death. With the ongoing investigation, the woman said she's worried inmates think they can get away with attacking officers. They might believe that "officers are afraid to do anything" because Florida's prison system has fallen under scrutiny since Valdes' death, she said. The incident resulted in some delays Saturday. Lunch was about four hours late and some visitors waited up to four hours to see specific inmates after those inmates had been cleared of involvement. By Saturday evening the staff was evaluating the behavior of the inmates to determine how quickly operations could be safely returned to normal. Department of Corrections spokesman C.J. Drake said the situation appears to have bene handled exceptionally well. "The officers deserve credit for handling this with a great deal of professionalism which prevented it from getting out of hand," Drake said. O'Neill singled out quick thinking by Richardson as a defusing factor. "He wisely allowed if to settle down, then separated out the injured officers and brought in fresh officers from off-duty to supervise and carry out the operation," O'Neill said. "We really could have had a much more serious situation in there without much provocation."
Sun staff reporter Lise Fisher contributed to this report.
Karen Voyles can be reached at (352) 486-5058 or voylesk@gvillesun.com
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