What happened at Bristol County jail? Standoff disturbance incident and damages explored

North Dartmouth’s Bristol County House of Corrections in Massachusetts went into lockdown on Friday, April 21, after some inmates caused significant damage to one of the housing units while protesting over being moved. The Bristol County Sheriff’s Office said that they were moving the inmates to make the correctional house more suicide-resistant.

Sheriff Paul Heroux, who was appointed in January 2023, said:

"We had to do something about suicides. We had to shuffle people around. Some of the people didn't want to move. They caused a problem.”

Heroux said that the inmates were able to cause the disturbance due to the layout of the facility. He described the layout to be similar to a college dorm where inmates could move freely within several locked units. The sheriff added that they had a volatile situation where they had around 75-80 inmates who were agitated and caused a lot of damage.

Heroux continued that the damaged housing unit did not have locks on its doors because there were no toilets in the cells. He said that 17 “ringleaders” of that particular unit decided to initiate the chaos and protest against the decision to move them. An estimated $200,000 in damage was caused by them.

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Damages caused in the Bristol County Jail has prompted the sheriff's office to ask the state for financial assistance

Bristol County Jail was in lockdown (Image via Twitter/@TheKTofPolitics)

Sheriff Paul Heroux said all the cameras installed on the ceilings had been either ripped off, smashed, or covered. The central control windows were also broken along with the fans. The inmates also started to destroy the beds.

Things began to go sideways at 9 am when and by 11:30 am, the inmates presented a list of demands. At a press conference held Friday night, Heroux said:

"The list of demands, some were not possible. We couldn't accommodate all of these, but some of them we could. So, I responded in writing to try to deescalate the situation and as soon as they received the letter, they tore it up and threw it right back out the window."

Drone footage showed windows of the housing unit being obstructed with sheets and other items. At one point, one of the inmates aimed at the officers and sprayed a fire extinguisher out of the window.

Corrections officers prepared to take over the housing unit. (Image via SkyEye)

After the corrections officers at the Bristol County jail tried several means to de-escalate the situation, they decided to enter the housing unit at around 3 pm. The Department of Corrections responded and said they were wearing protective gear from five different prisons. The officers quickly took control of the housing unit and no injuries were made to the correctional officers or the inmates.

The sheriff said:

"Some of the people were in there on murder charges. They did have a lot weapons. You can take a Styrofoam cup and turn that into a weapon. If you melt it down, you can turn that into a plastic shank. The fans, the blades, they were able to sharpen those."

Inmates were detained outside (Image via SkyEye)

Several inmates were later removed from the housing unit and were detained outside on their knees and with their arms behind their backs on the basketball court.

Currently, the minimum-security Bristol County prison houses about 600 inmates. Charges against the inmates who were involved in the incident will be later decided by the District Attorney. The Bristol County Sheriff's Office said that they will ask the state for more money to restore the unit and put locks on many of the cells inside the facility.