Escambia County reacts to second prison situation in 3 days

ATMORE, AL (WSFA) - Around 1 p.m. Monday, several Correctional Emergency Response Teams rushed to Holman Correctional Facility in south Alabama to help quiet down the second prison disturbance there in three days.

Some 100 inmates took part in a riot Friday night and two guards, including the warden, ended up getting stabbed. Neither was seriously injured. And then it happened again Monday morning, though apparently on a smaller scale.

One inmate stabbed another one. The injured inmate did not receive life-threatening injuries.

The riots come just days after Governor Robert Bentley announced plans to push for new prisons as part of his prison reform agenda. Governor Bentley is scheduled to visit Holman Tuesday morning.

Even though Jim Lovell lives two miles away from Holman, he never really had any issues with the prison. In fact, he was comfortable enough to leave his doors and windows unlocked. After all, this part of Escambia County is country. Not anymore.

"We go by the prison all the time, and when something like this happens it gets real serious," Lovell explained.

"I've got two friends who are guards down there. They've been there 20 years and they're thinking about quitting," Donald Gipson stated.

In Atmore, Mayor Jim Staff admitted he didn't sleep very well Friday night, though he was mighty complimentary of law enforcement for quickly subduing misbehaving inmates and taking control of the situation.

"It was comforting to know the quick response," the mayor said. "Atmore responded, the county responded...kept the damage to a minimum," Staff added.

Ken Smith was selling sweet potatoes near the interstate and couldn't help but think of the warden and the guard who had been stabbed Friday night.

"When I heard it on the news about the stabbing, that kind of got my attention," he said. "A couple of the guards got stabbed a little bit, you know, but I heard this morning they're going to be alright."

Holman is a maximum security prison with an inmate population of 991. That's 454 more than what the facility was designed to hold.

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