The federal Bureau of Prisons has been placed on a nationwide lockdown after two incarcerated people were killed and two others were injured Monday during a gang altercation at a federal penitentiary in Texas (article available here).
Two people, Andrew Pineda, 34, and Guillermo Riojas, 54, were pronounced dead at a local hospital after the attack. Two others were injured and taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.
The incident happened around 11:30 a.m. Monday at USP Beaumont, a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas.
The lockdown, being instituted at the agency’s more than 120 federal prisons across the U.S., was prompted by fears of potential retaliation and concern violence could spread to other facilities. During a nationwide lockdown, incarcerated people are kept in their cells most of the day and visiting is canceled. Because of a spike in coronavirus cases in federal prisons, social visits at nearly every facility have been canceled already.
The use of a nationwide lockdown is relatively rare. The agency implemented the measure in April 2020 as coronavirus cases began skyrocketing in prisons nationwide, again after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and shortly before the inauguration of President Joe Biden later that month.
There have been a number of serious security issues within the federal prison system in the last few months, including several deaths and stabbings. The Justice Department announced earlier this month that the agency’s director, Michael Carvajal, was resigning from his position amid increased scrutiny over his leadership and in the wake of Associated Press reporting that uncovered widespread corruption, misconduct and other problems at the agency.