ULLIN - A weekend riot involving one-fifth of Tri-County Justice and Detention Center's inmates may have been contained in less than an hour, but the incident is not over as far as area law enforcement officials are concerned.

The Pulaski County Sheriff's Department, along with the Illinois State Police, is conducting an investigation into the incident, which began on Friday evening when 46 inmates at the Ullin facility barricaded themselves in a room and began setting fire to mattresses and books.

"We're investigating why it happened, how it happened and we're going to get down to who needs to be charged," Sheriff Randy Kern said.

Kern said there is a strong possibility that criminal charges will come out of the incident.

Pulaski County owns the Tri-County building, and the jail's management is contracted to the GEO Group headquartered in Florida. Kern also serves as warden for the 226-bed facility.

Responding to the scene about 8:30 p.m., law enforcement agencies brought the riot under control by firing tear gas into the area where inmates were barricaded about 30 minutes after the riot was reported.

GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez said the company is assisting local law enforcement in the investigation.

"We will be fully cooperating with local law enforcement in any charges they decide to bring," Paez said.

It is the second time in just more than a month that the company has had to deal with the aftermath of a riot. An Indiana state prison managed by GEO Group reported nine people who were injured in a riot on April 24 at New Castle Correctional Facility.

The Indiana riot occurred just a week after the facility gained an additional 630 inmates from Arizona. A report on the incident by the Indiana Department of Correction states factors such as "too many unseasoned staff on duty and a lack of veteran staff in key positions" as contributing to the riot.

Other factors listed include too much offender idleness, a breakdown in communications and failure to impose consistent sanctions for offender misbehavior.

Paez said both state and private prisons have similar incidents sporadically. He said the GEO Group was pleased with how quickly the Ullin incident was contained.

"These unfortunate incidents happen from time to time in both public and private institutions," Paez said. "We do have policies and protocol in place. We fully followed those procedures and got the incident under control in less than 30 minutes."

Kern said he too was pleased with how quickly responding agencies were able to defuse the situation.

"We took control of it quickly and efficiently," Kern said.

Even so, Ken Kopczynski of the Private Corrections Institute said the incident is further evidence supporting his organization's mission. The Private Corrections Institute advocates abolishing for-profit prisons throughout the country.

"If you get over the moral issue of incarcerating people for profit, I think you can see they don't do a good job," Kopczynski said.

He added that the percentage of incidents in private prisons is higher than in state- and federally-operated prisons.

"If you take the GEO Group as a whole and look at their incidents, riots and escapes and compare to a comparable facility in the state of Florida Department of Corrections, it's higher in terms of their escape and abuse," Kopczynski said. "Public facilities have the same problems, but the percentage of what they have is not as bad."

ashley.wiehle@thesouthern.com

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