INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
inmates were killed and 17 others injured in a riot at a maximum security prison in South Carolina, one of the deadliest in decades in the
United States, authorities said Monday.Fights among inmates erupted Sunday evening at the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, South
attention and seven inmates were killed," the department said on its Twitter account.All prison guards and law enforcement authorities who
responded were "safe and accounted for," it said.The department had initially described the riot as an "ongoing incident," only revealing
the scope of the problem hours after its start at 7:15 pm Sunday."The incident involved multiple inmate on inmate altercations in three
housing units," the department said.Lee Correctional Institution, which is reported to have capacity to hold nearly 1,800 inmates, is a
maximum security facility built in 1993 to house violent offenders and inmates who exhibit behavioral problems.Deadly prison riots have been
relatively rare in the United States, despite some notable exceptions.In 1993, nine inmates and a corrections officer were killed in the
Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Lucasville, Ohio.A two-day riot and hostage-taking at the New Mexico State
Prison in 1980 left 33 inmates dead and 200 injured, one of the worst in modern US history.Probably the most famous was the 1971 rebellion
at New York's Attica prison.After a four day standoff with inmates holding 42 hostages, New York state police moved in to retake the prison
on orders of governor Nelson Rockefeller
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