BUCKEYE, Ariz. — Two staff members at Lewis prison in Buckeye are no longer working for the state after video was released of inmates setting fires inside the facility.
The video comes from the same prison experiencing lock issues with cell doors, allowing inmates to leave their cells and assault corrections officers. The lock tampering and the fires took place in different units at the facility.
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The Arizona Department of Corrections said in an emailed statement Wednesday that official reporting from the complex at the time was "incomplete and/or inaccurate, clearly downplaying the severity and scope of the incident, when contrasted with the incident video."
ADC said two staff members in charge of overseeing the response to the Nov. 8 incident in the prison's Rast Max unit are no longer with the state.
The two videos released by ADC are 34 minutes and 53 minutes long. The first video starts with a burning box outside one of the cells on the upper tier. Corrections officers talk to the inmates in the cell block as the inmate drops items from his cell onto the fire.
Inmates from the lower tier are released from their cells and are seen walking up and down the block, talking to inmates in other cells as corrections officers extinguish the first fire.
Eventually, another inmate on the upper tier starts a fire in front of his own cell and drops items on the growing flames.
Corrections Officer Clinton Roberts said fires happened almost every day in November. He said inmates figured out how to open up the trap doors and would set their mattresses, blankets and clothing on fire using electrical outlets before throwing them out of their cells.
In the video, inmates throw items at corrections officers as they use fire extinguishers, water jugs and a hose to extinguish the fires. Inmates are seen trying to restart the fires when the corrections officers walk down the hall.
Roberts said the inmates would normally react this way when they didn't get what they wanted, like a phone call. He said the problem is not as big now as it was in November.
The lower-tier inmates were evacuated to different cells first. The report says staff used pepper spray in one of the cells when an inmate refused to evacuate.
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Staff then began to evacuate the inmates on the upper tier, and according to the incident report, multiple inmates got verbally aggressive and started fighting staff.
The report says three inmates were taken down to the floor, and medical staff evaluated them afterward.
Another inmate was taken down when he slipped from his cuffs and began to fight with staff, the report says. Staff used a stun gun on the inmate’s back when he continued to fight with staff, according to the report.
The area was then decontaminated and cleaned before the inmates were returned.
According to the report, only two corrections officers reported injuries resulting from the incident. One corrections officer said he injured his right toe but was not seeking medical attention. Another said both of his hands were still burning and starting to swell after they were exposed to the pepper spray.
ADC said the video of the fires was first shared with corrections director Charles Ryan last Thursday.
Ryan directed an immediate review in coordination with the ADC's office of inspector general into the incident and the related documentation. That review is still ongoing.