Friday, May 7, 2021

INMATE DISTURBANCE IN SPALDING COUNTY

On Friday at approximately 6:45 am, a group of inmates in a housing unit at the Spalding County Detention Center began creating a disturbance, eventually barricading the entrance to the unit with metal bunk beds and attempted to block surveillance cameras. 


Sheriff Darrell Dix, “From the very beginning multiple attempts were made by our detention staff to de-escalate the situation including meeting face to face with the inmates. The inmates that were involved chose not to cooperate with those attempts and the situation began to slowly deteriorate. By 9:45 am, additional de-escalation attempts had been attempted but failed. Before the event could deteriorate any further, I made the decision to deploy the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team armed with various types of less-lethal weapons into the Unit. The SWAT team along with our K-9 Unit and Detention staff made entry, deployed a distraction device, and secured the unit without incident. All of the inmates immediately complied when entry was made. There were no further incidents and no uses of force.” 


“The inmates that have been identified as instigating the event have been removed and placed in lockdown pending disciplinary charges and further criminal charges. We are continuing to review video to identify any others that may have been involved and determining the cause of the incident. Inmates housed in that unit that were not involved will remain there. The other inmates housed in the unit were put in a bad situation because of the behavior of a few instigators. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the incident ended peacefully. Our SWAT Team and Detention staff did an outstanding job in responding to, attempting to de-escalate, and containing this incident before it got out hand. There could not have been a better outcome.”

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