SEWARD, Alaska, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Alaskan officials say they are investigating a disturbance at a maximum security prison in which inmates smashed toilets and sinks and flooded their cells.
All the prisoners were locked in their cells during the event and no one escaped, the Anchorage Daily News reported Wednesday.
The incident at Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward began about 11 p.m. Monday and lasted about nine hours, corrections officials said, declining to call it a riot.
"It was a disturbance," said Kaci Schroeder, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections. "I think a riot would be more out of control. Nobody left their cell."
None of the 14 inmates who participated in the disturbance required medical treatment, Schroeder said. The unit holds 32 prisoners.
She didn't know what triggered the disturbance.
The extent of damage is still being assessed. Cells flooded after the porcelain fixtures were broken, she said. The cells also were trashed out.
The building where the inmates were housed was recently changed to a segregation unit for "maximum custody" inmates. Brad Wilson, business manager for the correctional officers union, said such a change requires the installation of stainless steel sinks and toilets, but that had not been done.
