So - maximum security prison. Lets say for the sake of argument that there are some prisoners in solitary either because they’re bad asses, or for their own protection.
What happens if there’s a massive fire? Obviously you can’t let the prisoners burn, so do they all get transferred to the yard? How do the fire trucks get in? Would there be a lot of escapes?
What if it was one of those “Super-maximum” maximum security prisons where inmates are only out of their cells for 30 minutes a day, by themselves?
I was always under the assumption that prisons were built virtually fireproof. It’s pretty hard to set concrete and steel on fire without carpets, drapes, wood, etc.
And even with non-flamable materials everywhere I would bet they still have a thorough sprinkler system.
Of any jail riots I’ve seen the inmates actively have to seek burnable materials like matresses and paperwork.
Never mind the fact the practical question of how and where the inmates could “get a bunch of inflammables together” without the guards noticing, my understanding is that it would be impossible for them to get a major fire going. Whatever collection of crap they’d assembled would burn itself out on the floor, and that would be it. You can’t set steel and concrete on fire.
At worst, if they did this in the cafeteria or something, you’d just send every back to their cells.
I’m sure Qadgop will drop by soon enough to provide a definitive answer.
Cell doors have an inundation point, it unclips using a quick shift key that unit staff carry.
This removes a round plate behind which is an installed fire hose nozzle, you connect a hose up and away you go.
Useful for calming down the violently crazy, or they can drown if they want to stay crazy, its their choice, not that we would ever consider doing that of course.
Most times a fire is started the perp usually gets quite a beating from other prisoners, you’ve got to remember that the perp puts all the other prisoners at risk, and they usually do not take kindly to it, sometimes the staff have to place themselves at some risk to protect the perp from being seriously killed.
I have to point out that in UK prisons, all inmates are housed in individual cells, so they will most likely only harm themselves.
Even the highest security rated prisoners are not keen on fire, especially when they are locked in their cells.
The prison is mostly fire-proof, with no curtains or rugs of any kind, as **Hampshire ** said. Even the inmates’ bedding is fire-retardant. Each cell has its own fire sprinklers. They are not allowed lighters or matches (and neither are the staff.) Books and papers are limited, and they aren’t allowed to have many personal items in the cells. In the one in which my husband worked, the entire cell is visable to the staff at all times, so an inmate wouldn’t have much time to try to start a fire before the staff noticed.
There are provisions for evacuation, of course. Fires aren’t the only disasters that prisons face-- tornado, earthquake, floods . . . there are a lot of reasons which they might need to evacuate, so plans are always in place.
The inmates would be transported to the nearest secure location, on grounds, if possible… (Not all prisons are one giant building-- many have dozens of buildings on site.) They would be transported by armed guards, secured by belly chains with wrist and ankle cuffs. If necessary to take them off grounds, they would be put into specially hardened vehicles which are designed to keep them seperated and practically immobile.
Hmm - OK, so if fires aren’t a huge issue lets look at an earthquake instead.
Something really big and really intense where the prisoners would NOT be safe if left in the building. Maybe a gas line rupture or something?
If there was a really rapid emergency would the guards take the time to chain people up, or would they just hit the “open” button and run like hell?
I guess what I’m asking is that there are situations where a large group of people have to evacuate a building really quickly. How would that sort of thing be handled. Guards with guns trained on inmates or what?
I worked in a small county jail at one time. They had a whole evacuation plan mapped out: who went where, who did what, who got notified, etc. It was very detailed and covered all sorts of possible events. One small detail of the plan that impressed me: all the cell locks were electronic, controlled from the guard tower. The head jailer of each shift, however, had a ring of huge keys to the cells just in case of a disaster that involved a power outage. These keys had notches filed into them so that even in the dark or in heavy smoke, the jailer could find the proper key to unlock the jail cell.
I’m sure bigger/more secure lockups have even more elaborate plans for emergencies but I can’t even begin to imagine the details.
Our prison is very compartmentalized, and designed to not burn. Try to burn part of it, just evacuate a small area. Some guys may get triple celled or more, but they have plans to do just that at need.
We’ve had emergency management drills for stuff just like this, including water cut off, disease outbreak, plane crashes into building, etc.
There is no “open” button which would release all of the inmates from the prison. The cells could be opened that way, but there are multiple doors between them and the exits to the outside, some of which have to be triggered from certain locations, or opened by card swipe or palm-print. Secondly, the inmates would be unlikely to be able to find their way out without assistance. Some of those places are intentionally built like mazes.
The guards would be instructed to follow protocol in chaining up the prisoners before removing them from their cell. (Hubby says from practice drills he knows they can have an inmate fully chained in 38 seconds.) They would not put a guard in danger, though. (For example, sending him through a wall of fire to go get an inmate.) They’re expected to take all reasonable measures to save the inmates.
I asked him specifically if they would ever let an inmate out of the cell without chains in a life-or-death situation, and he said that it was possible, but that it would be extremely unlikely for such a situation to ever occur.
If it were the Ohio State Penitentiary in 1930, you’d neglect to have a firefighting plan in place, succumb to panic when inmates set fire to a block, and refuse to let anyone out of his cell – causing 322 deaths.
Erik Barnouw, author of the first great history of radio, wrote that this was one of the first on-the-spot news events broadcast live…right down to the shrieks of men being roasted alive in their cells.
I read some commentary on how they did it with Katrina; a major prison had to be evacuated due to rising water, NO transportation was available, and over 6000 inmates were under the supervision of a handful of very dedicated, very professional officers.
Basically they were chained together in large groups, wearing their bright prison colors, and marched out of the institution and along the public thoroughfares, along with all the other people fleeing.
The inmates were told that if any tried to escape, they would be shot.
Over 3 days, all inmates were evacuated. 10 managed to escape in the chaos, but were all eventually recaptured. No inmates died.
Now the whole handling of the evacuation is a political hot potato in NO, but frankly I think a lot of folks stayed cool and did a lot of things correctly to get the outcome they got.
I’m a firefighter and my best friend is a Sargent working in a nortious New York state prision. (Think of big news in 1971.) I once asked him about this. All of the Corrections Officers (guards is a very non-PC term) are trained in basic firefighting. Meaning grab a hose and put the wet stuff on the red stuff.
Inside the main walls, the inmates are kept in many different cell blocks. Seperate concrete and steel buildings. If worst came to worst and a block did go up in flames the bad guys are releaced into one specific yard and controlled by the guys with guns on the walls.
Even in the big riot of '71 only two of the four cell blocks tipped over. The admin. building and support areas were under control. Less than half the prision went to hell. A lot of lessons were learned and things changed. Even with a major natural disaster a major prision won’t get out of control like that again.
I know we’ve moved past the fire scenario specifically, but I wanted to add that in addition to the sprinkler system, near fire-proof construction and guard training, prisons also have one hellacious smoke evacuation system. In the case of smoke (or teargas) in any section of the secured areas, the smoke evac system will prevent any movement of smoke outside that area. It is rigorously tested before a prison receives its certification to be able to house prisoners. So the fire scenario wouldn’t require a mass exodus from the prison.
