DARTMOUTH, MASS. (WHDH) - The Bristol County Sheriff’s Office shared new photos Monday of damage to two housing units at the Bristol County House of Correction in Dartmouth after an hours-long inmate protest and standoff last week.
Photos showed a first look at the scene, with broken phones, televisions and security cameras. Speaking with reporters, Sheriff Paul Heroux said inmates spread soapy water on floors to make them slippery. He said inmates also used beds, mattresses and other furniture to barricade doors.
“Fortunately, the doors were designed to open inwards, because if we had to push the doors open, we wouldn’t have been able to get in,” Heroux said.
“They had destroyed a lot of property and they made a lot of weapons,” he continued.
Photos showed some of the weapons, including a doorknob in a sock, a wrapped up needle and a club made out of wood and nails.
In all, officials now estimate the cost of the damage to be around $200,000.
“They’re contained together,” Heroux said. “They feed off each other. There’s a lot of groupthink mentality that went into this.”
Officials said the incident at the Bristol County House of Correction on Friday started in the morning after authorities attempted to move inmates out of a housing unit to make it more “suicide resistant,” among other things.
The incident grew to involve two housing units.
As the situation escalated, Heroux said personnel pulled back and locked their units down.
Officials later made the decision to send personnel back into the housing units involved in this incident after about six hours.
“It got to that same level of point of no return and we couldn’t reason with them anymore,” Heroux said. “Just completely adamant, they were digging their heels in.”
Heroux said 130 law enforcement officials from around the state converged on the Bristol County House of Correction.
When they entered the two units, Heroux said crews used flash bangs and gas to stop the uprising before taking inmates out one-by-one in handcuffs.
While Heroux said no one was injured and no hostages were taken, he said the incident was a close call.
Ultimately, he said patience and smart de-escalation was key in the approach.
“So, the CO’s shutting things down, backing out and just cordoning off that housing unit — that kept us from having a true riot,” Heroux said.
Speaking on Monday, Heroux also said the kind of behavior seen last week won’t be tolerated as officials now consider new charges for 20 individuals described as agitators in this incident.
In addition to photos, officials said there is video showing inmates talking the night before Friday’s events, planning their actions. Officials said the video will be released at a later date.
In the meantime, officials said information will be presented to the Bristol County District Attorney to help decide if inmates will face new charges.
Heroux said the incident last week remained under investigation as of Monday, adding that the housing units involved were considered crime scenes.
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