THE LEDGER-STAR
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 20, 1994 TAG: 9409200483
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Inmates set fires and briefly took control of parts of the overcrowded Norfolk jail and a state prison on the same day Gov. George Allen opened a legislative session aimed at abolishing parole.
Monday night at the Norfolk jail, a group of convicted felons started fires with paper and bedsheets and took control of their section for five hours before surrendering to authorities early today.
One guard and two inmates suffered minor injuries.
Earlier Monday at the maximum-security Greenville Correctional Center, prisoners set fires in two cellblocks, fought in the dining hall and occupied a recreation yard. It took about five hours before guards equipped with riot gear and dogs could move into the yard, handcuff prisoners and return them to their cells.
Gov. Allen called the violence at the 2,471-inmate prison ``no big deal.'' No guards were hurt and only a few inmates suffered injuries, none of them life-threatening.
But a 10-year veteran corrections officer who insisted on anonymity said tension has been mounting at state prisons since Allen publicized his plan to end parole for people convicted of crimes committed after Jan. 1.
``It's long overdue,'' she said of the disturbance. ``It's going to happen again and again'' at other prisons.
Stories, Pages A2, B1 and B3. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Allen
KEYWORDS: JAIL PRISON CORRECTIONAL CENTER RIOT DEMONSTRATION by CNB