A prison near Minneapolis, Minnesota, was placed on lockdown Saturday afternoon as nearly 100 inmates refused to return to their cells.
• Also read: Festival-goers report their “incredibly harrowing” experience in Nevada
• Also read: The famous Las Vegas Strip was flooded
Crisis team members were deployed to the scene to negotiate with those arrested, BBC News reports.
According to initial information from English media, their protest is related to the conditions they are exposed to in the Minnesota Correctional Facility.
In the middle of a heat wave, a staff shortage would have left inmates locked in their cells for several hours, even though they were not air-conditioned.
According to the correctional officers’ union at this facility, AFSME Council 5, the staffing shortage at this prison would be very problematic.
Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell told CNN that the inmates were not violent in any way during their protest.
“They sat at tables, played cards and talked to each other,” says Paul Schnell.
The tactical intervention unit was used “as a preventive measure,” said a prison spokesman.
In total, around 1,200 people are incarcerated in this prison.