No correctional facility wants to experience a major disturbance, but all jails and prisons must have a preparedness strategy in place should a riot occur within their walls.
Inmates in all facilities stand the potential to perpetrate mass violence and destruction for many reasons and to various degrees of severity. Regardless of the type of riot or disturbance, whether a small skirmish in a housing unit, gang warfare in a yard or a dining hall, or an attempted inmate facility takeover, it is incumbent on all correctional agencies to properly train and equip their CERT (Correctional Emergency Response Team) personnel, as well as all staff, to ensure quick and safe response when an inmate disturbance occurs.
As recently as early 2022, correctional facilities across the nation have experienced riots, often leading to injuries and deaths of inmates and corrections staff. Corrections agencies continue to learn from incidents such as the 2021 riot in the Idaho State Correctional Center, New Mexico’s State Penitentiary riot in 1980 and most infamously, the Attica Prison Rebellion of 1971. As agencies continue to improve training for response tactics to riot conditions, they also must remain prepared with the purchase of necessary equipment.
This Corrections1 guide addresses the issues to consider in the procurement of riot response equipment for use in corrections facilities.
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