Bristol County Sheriff: 20 inmates to face new charges after standoff

DARTMOUTH, Mass. (WLNE) — Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux said Monday that 20 inmates are facing charges following a “standoff” Friday.

Heroux said the charges stem from an hours-long incident Friday, where more than $100,000 of damage was done to the Dartmouth facility.

According to Heroux, the inmates were seen and heard on video hatching their uprising plans the night before.

“You can see all the weapons that they had, we had several people awaiting trial for multiple murder charges, we didn’t know what we were going into,” he said.

The sheriff released photos of the damage done inside the facility as well Monday.

He called the incident a “standoff” that started in the morning and last into the afternoon.

“You’ve got a lot of people who have troubled histories, and they are contained together, they feed off each other, there’s a lot of groupthink mentality that went into this. These things happen, it’s not the first time, it’s not the first time here and it won’t be the last time here,” Heroux added.

Heroux said Friday a group of inmates had a list demands after they refused to be moved as part of the sheriff’s new suicide prevention system.

“Our rate of suicide is three times the national average,” Heroux said.

He added that the jails capacity is 1,400 and about half of the inmates are in cells that don’t lock.

“Hopefully, now the state will say, ‘Put locks on the doors and toilets in cells’ in the next 12 or 24 months, but they’ll give us the money to do it,” he added.

No injuries were reported during the incident.