DARTMOUTH, MASS. (WHDH) - Authorities said no staff or prison inmates were taken hostage and no one was injured during an hours-long disturbance at the Bristol County House of Correction that led to officers escorting prisoners out of the facility in handcuffs.
While there were no injures, Sheriff Paul Heroux said inmates caused between $100,000 and $200,000 in damage in one of two housing units involved.
“The second unit has far less,” he said.
Officials said the incident at the facility started in the morning after authorities attempted to move inmates to different housing units.
In an update provided by the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, sheriff’s office spokesperson Jonathan Darling said the incident occurred while staff were taking steps to make the facility “more suicide-resistant.”
“Part of this process is moving inmates to different housing units,” Darling said. “Friday morning, some inmates in one of the housing units did not want to move, leading to the current incident.”
“We had a volatile situation where we had as many as 75 [to] 80 inmates that were agitated and they also did a lot of damage,” Heroux said. “…You know, things went sideways.”
By midday, law enforcement including personnel from the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Corrections and five other counties converged in large numbers at the section of the Bristol County House of Correction in Dartmouth, where inmates appeared to board up a block of broken windows.
At one point, a small group of officers approached the windows with riot shields to retrieve a note passed through an opening.
Heroux said a total of 140 inmates were involved across the two units. Heroux said there were 20 ringleaders leading the disturbance.
As the situation escalated Friday morning, Heroux said officers pulled back and locked their units down.
Heroux said he at one point responded in writing to a list of demands from inmates, though he said inmates tore up his response.
Officials made the decision to send officers back into the housing units involved in this incident around 3 p.m.
Once inside, Heroux said officers “quickly took back the unit.”
Dozens of inmates were later seen sitting handcuffed in a nearby basketball court after they were removed by heavily-armored officers.
In all, Heroux said inmates destroyed cameras and beds and created makeshift weapons.
Heroux said “agitators” who fanned Friday’s incident had been taken to other jails within Massachusetts.
In the aftermath of this incident, he also said issues at play were something officials had already been working to address.
Among issues, Heroux said a lack of toilets in cells means staff aren’t able to put locks on cell doors.
Heroux said officials have plans and funding to start adding toilets and locks. He said such measures, though, will take time, adding that he hopes this incident may speed up the process.
Heroux said he hopes to bring lawmakers and other state leaders to the Bristol County House of Correction in the future to look at the facility.
An investigation is underway into Friday’s incident, in the meantime, as some of the inmates involved could face new charges.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)