(Photo/Todd Ehlers, Flickr)

The Bureau of Prisons, the federal agency in charge of the high-security United States Penitentiary — a violent lockup in southern Colorado that has recently seen three inmates killed in less than four months — has confirmed that during a social visit on Sunday an inmate assaulted two of his visitors, sending them to the hospital.

Here is a statement from the bureau:

On Sunday, an inmate became aggressive during a social visit at the USP and assaulted his visitors. Staff quickly subdued the inmate. The inmate visitors were evaluated at a local hospital where they were treated and released. There are no staff injuries reported at this time and an investigation into the incident continues.

While the prison has remained on lockdown status since an inmate killed another inmate in August, social visits were reinstated on Nov. 1. Generally a lockdown restricts inmates from leaving their cells and visiting family members.

“It was some type of paper, folded or rolled real tight with a blade in the end of it,” said one correctional officer knowledgeable about the situation. The officer claimed that inmate had tried to stab his wife and mother-in-law. “He managed to cut his wife’s neck and then tried to cut up the mother a little bit.”

The bureau has not confirmed such details but claims a investigation is pending.

“The inmates, they’re younger and more aggressive,” said the guard. “More violence-prone inmates, that’s what we’re seeing.”

In April, two inmates were killed by guard gun fire after a massive 200-person riot broke out on the prison’s recreation yard. The yard is now being segregated into smaller areas.

For more information on the surge in violent attacks in the federal prison system, see The Colorado Independent’s More reports of violence point to ailing federal prison system.

(Photo/Todd Ehlers, Flickr)

Deadly assaults in federal penitentiaries are on the rise and they aren’t exclusive to Colorado. Following reports that an inmate was stabbed to death in August at the U.S. Penitentiary in the southern city of Florence, there is news from another federal lockup that a guard was assaulted and stabbed multiple times this month, lending credence to correctional workers’ claims that the entire system is an understaffed tinderbox.

The Bureau of Prisons, the agency overseeing the lockups, has confirmed that a correctional guard was stabbed by an inmate multiple times in the head and lower back at the U.S. Penitentiary Big Sandy in Kentucky, sustaining injuries that required medical attention. Workers at the facility claim that the guard was stabbed with a makeshift “shank” weapon, but the bureau has not yet confirmed that detail.

Bureau officials state that the guard was released from hospital care on Oct. 21, the same day the assault happened. The prison has been on lockdown status since the incident, which means that inmates are generally confined to their cells and not allowed to visit with family members.

Bureau employees familiar with the situation, who commented on an anonymous basis, stated that the guard was “stabbed five times with the weapon” and sustained “3-inch stab wounds to the head area and three stab wounds to the lung and back area,” by an “inmate refusing to be restrained, due to being intoxicated” and that the “officer had blood streaming from the head wounds.”

So far, the bureau has not confirmed the workers’ claims.

The fact that the inmate was able to hide a weapon in the first place, coupled with the bellicose assault on a staff member, are indications that understaffing has created a dangerous environment for both guards and inmates in the federal prison.

In Colorado, at the high-security penitentiary in Florence, three inmates have died in less than four months. Two prisoners were killed by guard gunfire when a massive 200-person riot broke out on the recreation yard of the prison in April after inmates were again allegedly intoxicated on self-brewed alcohol. Another inmate was killed in August in what workers say was a stabbing by another inmate. The prison has been on lockdown since the most recent killing.

Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, a Democrat, sent a letter to bureau head Harley Lappin in September demanding that the agency publicly disclose the results of an investigation into the riot. However, the bureau has not yet responded to the lawmaker.

It’s not the first letter that has been sent to the bureau, either.

In February Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., sent a brief memo to Lappin, commenting on increasing violence against correctional workers in the nation’s prisons:

I am concerned about reports of increasing violence in the Federal Prison System, including recent assaults and homicides at [U.S. Penitentiary] Hazelton, [U.S. Penitentiary] Beaumont and [Federal Correctional Institution ] Allenwood. Incidents such as these are particularly troubling given the funding limitations in the Bureau of Prisons in fiscal year 2008, and the impact such constraints may have on the Bureau’s ability to respond to violent threats and attacks.

The violence reached a pinnacle in June when José Rivera, a 22-year-old correctional worker, was stabbed to death by an inmate at the U.S. Penitentiary Atwater in California.

Inmate-on-inmate assaults are also on the rise. According to federal data and media reports, 12 inmates in federal prisons lost their lives due to inmate-on-inmate violence in 2007, and the number has already reached at least 11 in 2008.

Correctional workers have been blowing whistles for years over what they claim are dangerously low staffing levels at government lockups. Employees claim that the low number of guards has made it increasingly difficult to spot contraband like alcohol and weapons.

In March 2005, the bureau implemented a directive called “mission critical,” that ordered all agency institutions to come up with staffing rosters that listed the bare-minimum needed to run each prison safely. Workers contend that the bureau isn’t even fulfilling obligations for the bare-minimum and is vacating units for hours at a time.

Clarification: Story edited to further distinguish claims made from the bureau and workers at the Big Sandy USP relating to statements about a makeshift “shank” weapon.