State prisons were on heightened alert Saturday after a gang fight Friday night at a facility in east Georgia sent 12 inmates to the hospital.
The disturbance broke out around 8 p.m. Friday at Hancock State Prison in Sparta.
There were no injuries to prison guards or other staff members, and there were no escape attempts during what a prison spokeswoman called a “significant” disturbance.
“The fight appears to be gang related,” said Gwendolyn Hogan, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections. “The department believes without a doubt that cell phones were used to organize and coordinate the disturbance.”
The prison is a 1450-bed facility is a close security prison, primarily housing “violent, long-sentenced prisoners,” Hogan said.
She said that 250 medium security inmates are housed in a “tent city.”
Hogan said the tents have solid walls, similar to military tents.
“Inmates housed in tent city began the disturbance,” Hogan said.
“Inmates left their tents and vandalized tent city,” she said. “At the same time, there were several confirmed assaults in the main compound. These assaults resulted in the hospitalizations.”
Hogan did not release the conditions of those hospitalized inmates.
She said six Department of Corrections tactical squads and four K9 units were sent in to quell the disturbance, and the Georgia State Patrol set up a perimeter around the facility, which is about 100 miles southeast of Atlanta.
The disturbance was the second at a rural Georgia prison in less than a week. On Monday, three inmates were hospitalized following a large fight at Telfair State Prison in south Georgia.
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