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Prison Legal News

Georgia Prisoner Stabs Warden

Loaded on June 1, 2024 published in Prison Legal News June, 2024, page 59
Filed under: Staffing, Lockdowns, Assaults on Staff. Location: Georgia.

Georgia’s Telfair State Prison went on lockdown on March 21, 2024, after a prisoner stabbed Warden Andrew McFarlane with a homemade knife. McFarlane, 54, a 25-year veteran of the state Department of Corrections (DOC), was not seriously injured in the attack, according to DOC spokesperson Joan Heath, who added he was “examined by facility medical personnel for superficial wounds and is expected to be okay.”

The assault occurred during a contraband shakedown about 11:30 a.m., when a limited lockdown order went ignored by prisoners in one housing area. McFarlane was stabbed during an ensuing disturbance. The number of times that he was stabbed was unknown.DOC also didn’t say how many prisoners were involved in the disruption nor how long it lasted.

Responding guards deployed “less-lethal munitions,” Heath said, clarifying that meant tear gas. The entire prison was then placed on lockdown, though no additional injuries were reported and only minimal damage. Housing 1,400 of the state’s most dangerous prisoners in “close custody,” the prison is severely understaffed; at the time of the assault there were just 36 guards, one for every 38 prisoners. That’s over four times the 1:9 average ratio reported by the federal Bureau of Prisons.

 

Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution  

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