NewsWest 9
BIG SPRING - A fight broke out August 7th, and since then, the federal correctional institute has been on lock down.
"Until investigations conclude, and we've determined that we can safely open up the facility, it's going to remain locked down," Chris Burke, Spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, said.
Since the lock down NewsWest 9 has been flooded with calls and emails from families all over the country who have loved ones locked up in the Big Spring prison. The only way they can communicate with them is through snail mail.
People in West Virginia, Colorado, and Florida have all received letters from loved ones inside and the stories about what's been going on are all similar; they tell us their family members claim the prison is segregated and that the fight that caused the lock down was racially motivated - between Hispanic and black inmates.
A mother from West Virginia sent us a letter from her son, in which he paints a picture of the situation, calling it "total mayhem," "like in the movies." He says he "can't say too much right now," but he saw the fight when it broke out. According to him, the Hispanic inmates far outnumbered the black inmates. That inmate also claimed in his letter...one group took ten white inmates hostage and threatened to kill one per day if they didn't get buses out of the place.
NewsWest 9 received a press release the day the fight broke out that tells a very different story.
"Staff immediately responded and brought the situation under control. A small number of inmates received minor injuries which did not require outside treatment," the press release stated.
But another mother from Florida claims her son wrote to her and also mentioned racial gangs. He said he was working in the library when the fight broke out, but he says he knew something was brewing; he said there were some visible signals that certain people were gang members, although his mother didn't understand what he meant and didn't inquire further at the time.
"I wouldn't comment on the allegations in the letter," Burke said.
The mothers told us they are just concerned about their loved ones safety and frustrated. They claim when they tried to ask questions to the prison staff, they got responses like this:
"Where did you get that information from, and this is a code red and we're not giving you any information. In fact, click!"
One of the letters indicated that the staff actually encouraged inmates to let their loved ones know what was happening and that they would send out the letters afterward. The Floridian actually received five letters after the lock down took effect and wanted to make sure the staff wasn't trying to downplay anything going on inside.
"If there were any prosecutions that were to come out of the investigation, we wouldn't want to comment on any of the details ahead of time," Burke said.
