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Third disturbance in four days erupts at Arizona prison

By Doug G. Ware

KINGMAN, Ariz., July 5 (UPI) -- Authorities at an Arizona prison were forced this weekend to quell the third disturbance in four days after an unspecified problem erupted, officials said.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety, Mohave County Sheriff's Office and Department of Corrections stifled the trouble at the Arizona State Prison at Kingman Saturday afternoon -- an incident the DPS termed a "riot," USA Today reported.

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Saturday's unrest was subdued and one or two prisoners sustained minor injuries, an official said.

A corrections official said after the disturbance Saturday that it was triggered by "non-compliant" inmates. About 700 prisoners began the process of being transferred as a direct result of an earlier disturbance Thursday.

What officials called a "major disturbance" occurred Wednesday among a group of minimum security inmates at the facility, during which six corrections officers were injured.

Some bloggers reported Saturday that some prisoners breached the walls at the Kingman facility -- a claim one corrections official rejected, the USA Today report said.

"The state's Number 1 priority is to protect Arizona citizens and our public safety officials," Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's office said in an email.

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The injured officers received treatment but two of the minimum security cells were destroyed, officials said.

The Arizona State Prison-Kingman houses more than 3,500 minimum and medium security prisoners. Opened in 2004, the facility has been the subject of multiple high profile security breaches in the last decade.

Later this month, the prison will begin accepting bids on a $50 million project for an additional 2,000 beds.

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