FORT DODGE, Iowa - Security guards subdued a fight between two groups of inmates at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility Thursday.
The state Corrections Department isn't reporting any major inmate injuries after guards used pepper spray to subdue the fight in the prison's main yard. A second, smaller fight broke out, but was also subdued. No guards were injured.
There have been no reports on any Iowa prison inmates contracting COVID-19/coronavirus. One correctional officer, at Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville, tested positive for the virus last week. By contrast, six inmates have died in neighboring Illinois, at a state prison in Joliet. There, 123 inmates and 65 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19.
At the Fort Dodge prison, a correctional officer was injured last September after being assaulted by an inmate. In the past week, inmates in Fort Dodge have been preparing fabric for use in hospital gowns that are being used as PPE during the COVID-19 outbreak.