VALDOSTA — An altercation between two Valdosta State Prison inmates Friday morning left one needing hospital care.
The Georgia Department of Corrections confirmed the altercation and that one inmate had been sent to the hospital.
Phone calls to The Valdosta Daily Times and scanner traffic claimed a 25-year-old man was taken from Valdosta State Prison Friday morning by ambulance.
Early reports claimed the inmate suffered multiple stab wounds and contusions from homemade weapons. One of these weapons was reportedly a sock filled with master locks.
The DOC, however, said the incident did not involve a stabbing, rather the inmate suffered lacerations, and that the inmate was taken to the hospital for evaluation.
Asked what type of procedures are in place for dealing with the other inmate in this altercation, a DOC representative responded in an e-mail, “Yes, there are procedures in place for dealing with inmates involved in these types of incidents.”
The Valdosta Daily Times did not receive an additional response Friday afternoon upon again asking what such procedures might be.
This is the latest in a series of incidents, events, and stories emanating from Valdosta State Prison in the past few weeks.
On Thursday, the Special Operations Unit of the Georgia Department of Corrections conducted an unannounced search of the prison.
“The prison search was conducted by 18 tactical squads and 12 canine handlers with drug dogs,” according to the DOC Friday. “The entire prison and grounds were searched for contraband and excess property. A small amount of nuisance contraband was found, including handmade weapons, two cell phones, and homemade alcohol.”
“The department is committed to maintaining safe and secure facilities,” DOC Commissioner Brian Owens said in a statement Friday. “We will continue to randomly search the state’s prisons to maintain a high level of safety.”
The DOC didn’t say if the search was in response to an Oct. 31 inmate-on-inmate attack or an Oct. 24 inmate-on-inmate attack. In each of these incidents, an inmate was sent to SGMC. Nor did they say if it was in response to a series of reports from family of current correctional officers and former correctional officers being attacked and injured by inmates.
The Valdosta Daily Times has on-the-record reports of three guards assaulted in Valdosta State Prison. The Times has received calls from numerous other people claiming to be either corrections officers or their family. These callers claim inmate violence has been on the rise in the prison and often blame the increase in violence to staffing decreases caused by state furloughs.
The Times filed open-records requests last month in relation to two of the accounts by former corrections officers. Earlier this week, the DOC responded that files had either been destroyed or were regarded as “state secrets.”
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An inmate at Valdosta State Prison was transported to South Georgia Medical Center after he was reportedly assaulted by another inmate Friday.
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