Hours-long incident at Pender prison ends with minor injuries

PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Violence broke out at the Pender Correctional Institution Wednesday evening.

According to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, inmates in three housing units set a series of small trashcan fires over the span of five hours. John Bull with NCDPS says some inmates then refused to return to their cells after the fires were put out and the smoke cleared.

Bull says the Prisons Emergency Response Team used “less-than-lethal force” to keep the incident from escalating and to “encourage the offenders to return to their dorms.”

No staff was injured, but inmates who reportedly refused to return to their cells had minor injuries.

“Seven offender ringleaders were identified and transferred to a close custody facility last night,” Bull wrote to WWAY. “They were immediately placed in medical quarantine and remain there.”

The incident began around 6:30 p.m. and ended just before midnight.

“It was not a riot, contrary to initial rumors,” Bull said.

Bull released the following information as to what the Division of Prisons uses to define a riot, disturbance, and an incident according to the American Correctional Association:

Riot: A riot occurs when a significant number of inmates control a significant portion of the facility for a significant period of time.

Disturbance: A disturbance is a step down from a riot in that there are fewer inmates involved, and there is no control or minimal control of any portion of the facility by inmates.

Incident: An incident is then a step down from a disturbance in that one or a few inmates are involved and there is no control of any portion of the facility for any period of time by an inmate.