MONROE — The new chief of the Monroe prison complex had a rough start on Tuesday: About 800 inmates remained on lockdown at the Washington State Reformatory following a fight Monday night.
The reformatory also had been under lockdown in December and March due to fights involving inmates.
“Right now, the only tension we are aware of, and it seems to be a minor tension, is territorial tension” among racial groups of inmates, said Scott Frakes, who started as the new superintendent Tuesday.
Investigators have yet to determine why two inmates — one is black, the other white — started fighting in a hallway around 8:20 p.m. Monday. It doesn’t appear that conflicts among ethnic groups — Hispanic, black and white inmates — have played a role in the fight, Frakes said.
“At this point, I don’t think it was spontaneous,” said Frakes, who has worked at five state prisons for 26 years.
Nine other inmates joined the fray, said Cathy Kopoian, a spokeswoman for the prison complex. No inmates were seriously injured. No staff members were hurt.
All the inmates involved in the incident have been moved to a maximum security unit at the complex, Kopoian said. Until the investigation wraps up, they will stay 23 hours in their cells.
The rest of the inmates in the reformatory were required to stay in their cells as officials conducted investigations. Officials started bringing the reformatory back to normal operation Tuesday, Kopoian said. The transition could be complete by Thursday.
Experts say that sometimes inmates use violence to show their power or make a statement toward officials.
Neither appears to be the case for the fight Monday evening, said David Lovell, a research associate professor at the University of Washington.
“I’d be surprised if it had anything to do with the change of the administration,” said Lovell, who has spent years working with inmates and prison workers as a counselor and teacher.
When inmates express their frustrations about a prison operation, they tend to damage properties or attack staff rather than fighting each other, Lovell said.
But it’s also true that gang violence is on the rise at prisons statewide, Lovell said.
“It’s nothing new,” he said. “The problem has increased rapidly within the last 10 years in the Washington state prison system.”
It’s hard to pin down what exactly causes inmates to fight each other, said Travis Pratt, an associate professor in charge of criminal justice program at Washington State University.
“Prison violence is very complex,” Pratt said.
Many prisoners are tense. Violence tends to be greater where opportunities are restricted, Pratt said. Small factors such as bumping a shoulder could trigger a fight.
The best prevention is to keep inmates busy, Pratt said.
Prison workers “have to maintain as much structure and activities as possible,” he said.
The Monroe prison complex is the state’s largest prison complex and houses about 2,400 inmates and employes about 1,100 people. The reformatory is the largest among five units at the complex.
A fight involving 12 inmates placed the reformatory under lockdown on March 26, Kopoian said. In December, another fight brought the unit to lockdown and left three inmates and one correctional officer injured. Other fights and disciplinary issues such as threats and refusing to be searched had been reported as well.
Frakes came to Monroe from Connell in Franklin County, where he had been a superintendent at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center for the last three years. His annual pay in Monroe is $102,264.
Even though his official first day was Tuesday, Frakes said he had an informational meeting with staff Monday. That helped him cope with the lockdown on Monday.
“It’s part of the business,” he said.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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