THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 21, 1994 TAG: 9409210415
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Another fire was started Tuesday morning in the Norfolk City Jail by the same group of state felony prisoners who participated in a melee Monday night that produced trash fires and three injuries.
Tuesday's blaze, started just before noon, was quickly extinguished by Norfolk firefighters, said George Schaefer, spokesman for the Sheriff's Department.
``The fire was minor, but coming on the heels of last night it takes on significant meaning,'' Schaefer said Tuesday.
Monday night, two seventh-floor cellblocks were closed off when about 60 prisoners started numerous small fires and injured one guard by throwing a soap solution in his eyes. The liquid was earlier thought to be ammonia.
The disturbance, which jail officials were careful not to call a riot, lasted for about six hours beforebeing brought under control at about 1:45 a.m. Tuesday. Two inmates were slightly injured; one of them required stitches above an eye.
Structural damage to the cellblocks was described as minor, Schaefer said, in large part because of the swift response of Norfolk's firefighters.
``They were terrific,'' Schaefer said. ``That is a tough situation to be in, to fight a fire in a jail like that, in a hostile situation.''
Sheriff Robert McCabe said he believed Monday's demonstration was a reaction to a new menu that restricts the amount and type of food that prisoners can eat. Before last week, prisoners ate from an all-you-can-eat buffet.
``We are changing some things for the improvement of the jail,'' McCabe said. ``Whenever you change things, some people resist.''
Monday night, a command center was set up inside the jail by McCabe and Norfolk Police Chief Melvin High. After Norfolk firefighters extinguished fires, a special emergency-response team from the Portsmouth Sheriff's Department and prison guards from Indian Creek and St. Brides - state penal units in Chesapeake - massed outside the eight-story building. Dressed in riot gear, the response team entered the jail and eventually convinced the prisoners to relinquish control of the cellblocks.
The two cellblocks, 7H and 7G, were closed and prisoners were handcuffed and transferred to General District Court holding cells and to the jail's second floor.
Tuesday morning, as the cleanup of cellblock 7G was completed, the prisoners on the second floor were brought back to the seventh floor, Schaefer said. He said officials thought all flammable materials had been confiscated.
``But it looks like someone got some flammable matter between the second and the seventh floors,'' Schaefer explained. ``It is unfortunate, but we are a jail and there are contraband materials and they got them back again.''
The sheriff's office and the Norfolk Fire Department are investigating both Monday's and Tuesday's incidents, Schaefer said. Arson and other charges are possible against the offending prisoners, he said.
Prisoners thought to have been involved in the disturbance have been restricted to their cells, he said, and television, telephone and visitation privileges have been revoked.
Meanwhile, McCabe was waiting Tuesday afternoon to hear whether those prisoners would be moved to state facilities.
Under Virginia law, McCabe said, the Department of Corrections has only 60 days to take custody of its prisoners after they are sentenced. Some of those involved in Monday night's disturbance have been in the Norfolk jail for a year, the sheriff said.
The jail's official capacity is 579 prisoners. Although some prisoners have been moved out recently, the jail population is now at 1,350. About 400 prisoners are sleeping on the floor, McCabe said.
Monday's troubles are a continuation of the kinds of problems that brought the Norfolk City Jail under federal scrutiny during the tenure of McCabe's predecessor, David K. Mapp.
In a report received by McCabe in early August, federal officials declared that the City Jail was ``grossly overcrowded'' and a serious public-health threat.
The Justice Department gave McCabe 90 days to devise a plan to cut the jail's population in half and six months to implement the program.
McCabe continues to blame many of the jail's problems on Mapp, whom McCabe defeated in the November 1993 election. McCabe said Mapp neglected conditions for so long that the facility is still suffering.
Improvements are slowly coming, the sheriff said. The response to Monday night's disturbance proved that the jail's relations are improving with the Norfolk police, the Portsmouth Sheriff's Department and the state Department of Corrections, McCabe said.
``I was very pleased with the cooperation,'' the sheriff said. ``It was very well-coordinated.''
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK CITY JAIL FIRES INJURIES by CNB