CLALLAM BAY — Inmate restrictions were imposed Wednesday and Thursday at Clallam Bay Corrections Center following two more violent incidents, including a stabbing, among the prison’s most serious offenders, law enforcement and state officials said.
There were no injuries requiring hospitalization, Department of Corrections spokesman Jeremy Barclay said Thursday as prison officials continue their investigation of a May 22 prison yard brawl among 81 inmates, one of whom’s jaw was broken.
Participants in all three incidents were close-custody inmates, whose supervision is already restricted and who “represent a potential for violence or a disruption of the operation,” Barclay said in an earlier interview.
The incident at about 11:20 a.m. Wednesday involved an inmate who attacked two corrections officers with his fists, Barclay said.
“Both were treated onsite for nonserious injuries,” Barclay said.
The inmate, Nigel Tyrone Greer, 43, is serving 16 years on three counts of child rape, Barclay said.
The close-custody unit was placed on lockdown “to regain the calm” of the inmates, he said.
The incident Thursday required the assistance of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office because it involved a felony assault, Sheriff’s Sgt. Ed Anderson said Thursday.
Deputies were dispatched to the prison at 7:45 a.m. Thursday, Anderson said.
Anderson said Brian David Rivas, 26, is suspected of stabbing Trenton James Johnson, 29, with a 6-inch shank once in the back early Thursday morning during breakfast in the day room.
The incident occurred on stairs, he said.
The wound was “superficial,” Anderson said later Thursday in a press release.
Rivas is under investigation for possession of a deadly weapon within a correctional facility and second-degree assault, Anderson said in the release.
Deputies retrieved an edged weapon that was on the ground of the day room between stairs that allow access to prison cells.
The pointed end of the shank “was a piece of metal that stuck out a little more than an inch in length,” Anderson said in the interview.
“It looked like a nail. It could be tweezers.”
Offenders in the unit live in one-man cells, Anderson said.
“They come into the day room to get food.
“They were getting ready to go back up the stairs to get up to their tier, their house, their room to eat, and on the stairs is where the assault happened.”
Barclay said Thursday that the close-custody inmates went into immediate “restrictive movement” status following the stabbing.
The status includes canceled programs and visitations, he said.
“Part of that is the immediate freezing of activities or severe limiting of activities so that cooler heads can prevail,” he said.
“Then we come back from it in a gradual manner.”
Barclay did not know Thursday how long inmates were on restrictive status as a result of the two incidents.
Prison spokeswoman Fay Gingell did not return calls for comment Thursday.
Barclay said a Critical Incident Review Report on the May 22 incident should be completed by Aug. 31.
The melee was brought under control after seven warning shots were fired by a corrections officers.
Anderson said prison officials are still trying to determine who injured the inmate whose jaw was broken.
They have been examining videos of the fracas.
“There were 80 people out their fighting,” Anderson said.
“The bottom line is, they haven’t been able to see who was the suspect that caused the injury.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
