TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - Videos circulating on social media apparently show an inmate-on-inmate attack at a state prison facility in Tucson.
One of those videos, posted to Instagram by user memphis_kenn, starts with an inmate using a padlock on a rope to hit another inmate with blood streaming down his face. The fight starts inside their living quarters and continues in the courtyard, and no guards are in sight.
13 News reached out to the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry for more insight into the video, but we have not received a reply.
The video went viral a little more than a month after three inmates were killed at the Cimarron Unit, a state prison facility in Tucson. ADOC said infamous prisoner Ricky Wassenaar killed Saul Alvarez, Thorne Harnage, and Donald Lashley. According to autopsy reports, Alvarez was strangled while Harnage and Lashley died from blunt force trauma to their heads. Alvarez allegedly had meth in his system and Harnage was beaten with a rock that was placed inside a mesh bag.
Following that fatal attack, 13 News spoke with a current corrections officer who sounded the alarm about staffing problems at the state prisons. Days after that story, ADOC responded to 13 News' requests for comment and disputed some of those claims about staffing issues.
Ongoing security concerns at the state prison facilities then caused a long-lasting lockdown after the killings.
13 News spoke to Janice, whose son has been incarcerated since 2017. He is an inmate at a state prison in Tucson, and these recent violent incidents have her concerned for his safety.
According to ADOC records, 75 inmates have died in state prisons this year alone. Some have been from natural causes, others were ruled self-harm, while still others are being investigated as homicides or overdoses.
"They don't deserve to be treated like inhumane objects; they're people," Janice said.
Her son sometimes shares what happens inside the prison with her, but oftentimes, he does not discuss it.
"He's really tried to not tell me, but since I've joined these family groups and I'm hearing all these things," Janice said. "I've asked him, I've said 'I know you're trying to protect me, but I'm hearing all this stuff and they're scary.' and he's said, 'You don't even know the half of it.'"
Janice is part of an online community whose loved ones are residing inside prison walls in the Tucson area.
Many of them saw the video too.
"It just reinforces the fear that I have for the safety of my son, as well as the other residents," Janice added. "It's really a very dangerous place."
Donna Leone Hamm from the Middle Ground Prison Reform group watched the video too.
"It's unusual to have these on videotape, and it only demonstrates, really, the proliferation of illegal cellphones because that's how these things are being documented," Hamm told 13 News.
She says attacks between inmates are common and pointed out the lack of correctional officers or prison staff in the video. This raises a lot of concerns for her.
"I think that tells you very clearly that there isn't the type of supervision that everyone believes is going on, and that is dangerous," Hamm said. "It's dangerous not just for the inmates, but it's dangerous to the staff."
Some of the videos posted by memphis_kenn also show apparent drug use by inmates, bringing up questions about how the drugs are even getting inside the facilities.
Hamm said she believes ADOC should take accountability for the alleged staffing shortages that may be contributing to the issues in the prison. She also said they should ensure the people employed at the prison have good intentions of being there.
She also thinks they should learn from every inmate attack to ensure they don't happen again.
"None of (the attacks) should be discounted," Hamm told 13 News. "There certainly is, no matter what, an obligation of staff to protect inmates from assault."