Inmates take 2 guards hostage in Oklahoma prison riot

HINTON, Okla. (AP) – Authorities say hundreds of inmates rioted at an Oklahoma federal prison, taking two guards hostage and refusing to return to their cells.

Caddo County Sheriff Lennis Miller says the riot started late Sunday at the Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton after a fight broke out in a yard. He says 150 inmates, some armed with baseball bats and iron pipes, were involved.

The Florida-based prison operator, The GEO Group, Inc., says about 400 inmates caused a disturbance in two yards. Miller says authorities used pepper spray and stun grenades to corral inmates into a soccer field and an exercise yard.

The hostages were freed and uninjured and the riot ended early Monday.

Miller says no officers were hurt, but that some inmates were taken to hospitals with unspecified injuries.