By Maki Becker
The Buffalo News, N.Y.
ATTICA, N.Y. —A lockdown at the Attica Correctional Facility was lifted after a nine-day search of the maximum security men’s prison in Wyoming County, the state Corrections Department announced.
The “overall search” was completed Thursday, a DOCCS spokesman said. “Over the next few days the facility will slowly return to normal operations,” officials said.
On Friday, the Corrections Department announced on its social media pages that 58 weapons were recovered during the searches.
Acting DOCCS Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III ordered the lockdown at the prison Nov. 28 after a series of violent incidents between inmates and between inmates and prison staff, including one confrontation that left a corrections officer with multiple stab wounds.
According to the union that represents state corrections officers, a series of assaults prompted a search of one of the cellblocks Nov. 28 .
“During the search one inmate refused to exit his cell and when confronted by staff pulled out a makeshift weapon from his waistband and stabbed an officer several times in the forearm,” said an emailed statement from James Miller, spokesman for the New York State Correction Officers and Police Benevolent Association. “After the inmate was subdued, the officer was taken to an outside hospital for treatment. A second inmate refused to exit his cell and when staff approached him inside the cell, he pulled out a makeshift weapon and attempted to cut the officers, but was unsuccessful.”
So far, no charges have been filed in connection with the assaults, but Corrections Department officials said investigations were continuing and that state police and local law enforcement were investigating and “will pursue prosecution.”
Advocates for incarcerated people said that the violence broke out as tensions rose over new rules at Attica that limited visitation to every other day as well as packages mailed to inmates. They can now only receive two personal parcels per year, and they cannot include food.
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