Jail uprising quelled after half an hour

ST. LOUIS -- Inmates at the city workhouse tried to take over a wing of the medium-security facility Saturday evening, but officials quelled the disturbance shortly afterward.

Dora Schriro, commissioner of the city's division of corrections, said the uprising started about 6 p.m. when 53 prisoners attempted to take control of a living area known as Pod Three. No employees were injured, but about 10 prisoners were being evaluated for injuries, Schriro said. She would not say what type of injuries the inmates may have sustained.

Two guards managed to escape the area where the disturbance started. As they left, they secured the area and locked the prisoners inside, Schriro said.

She said about 10 inmates resisted when officers reclaimed the wing about 30 minutes after the uprising began, but they were restrained with "minimal force."

There were reports that the inmates started the uprising because of limitations on their visitation rights. But Schriro said while some inmates may have been ineligible for visitation, there was no complex-wide denial of those rights.

Terri Ball, 34, said her brother called her from the facility after the uprising and said officials had taken away visitation rights.

"He gave me a call, screaming and yelling, saying the visits were taken away," Ball said as she stood outside the facility Saturday evening. "He said they're coming in here to do something to us. Get down here right now."

Schriro, the director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, said there was no immediate indication of weapons being used by the inmates. But that was under investigation, she said.

The north St. Louis facility, which houses about 1,290 inmates, was placed on lockdown. Inmates there are housed on a variety of state charges.