Published: August 03, 2007 11:54 pm      

Standoff triggers lockdown

SOMERSET — Officers forcefully removed two disruptive inmates from their cell at SCI-Somerset early Friday, ending a night-long standoff that triggered a brief prison lockdown.

The 10 1/2-hour stalemate was resolved without injury after one of the prisoners began assaulting his cellmate, forcing guards to move in, said Tim Pleacher, a unit manager at the prison.

“You’re never pleased when an incident happens,” Pleacher said. “But we have 2,300 men – things are going to come along. We’re pleased no one was hurt.”

State police are investigating. No charges had been filed as of Friday afternoon.

The identities of the two inmates were not immediately released, though the suspected instigator was serving a 6- to 12-year sentence for stealing a car in Lehigh County and his cellmate was incarcerated for 2- to 4-years on drug charges out of Berks County.

The prison went into lockdown around 7:30 p.m. Thursday, about an hour after the inmates refused to leave their cell in a special-needs unit, Pleacher said.

The lockdown was brief: Inmates typically are locked down nightly between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Limited operations resumed Friday morning, and the prison returned to normal activities by 1 p.m.

The facility instituted its incident command system, making sure it had hostage negotiators, entry and extraction teams and medical personnel on the grounds, Pleacher said.

State police were notified, but were not called in.

“Staff were erring on the side of caution,” Pleacher said.

Neither inmate made any threats, though neither would surrender, authorities said.

“We tried to talk to them and reason with them,” Pleacher said. “The situation pretty much stalemated.”

Guards moved in when the first inmate began assaulting the second.

“As soon as the assault started, we went in and extracted them both,” Pleacher said.

Somerset County Emergency Management Director Rick Lohr said 911 dispatchers were not notified of the incident.

“A lot depends on the magnitude of it, and how serious (prison officials) feel it is,” he said. “I value their judgment. They know what’s going on.”