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Posted: Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005 12:27 PM HST

Officer accidentally opened prison doors

By Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) _ Last month's riot at a Mississippi prison holding Hawaii inmates began after a corrections officer accidentally opened 20 cell doors. Prison officials say a sergeant who hit the wrong button probably is to blame for releasing about three dozen Hawaii inmates and triggering a violent disturbance. Two prisoners in the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility unit were hospitalized after other inmates attacked them when the cell doors opened on July 17th. Prison guards dropped tear gas grenades from the roof into the Special Housing Incentive Program unit, and regained control of the unit about 90 minutes after the cell doors opened. About 850 of the eleven-hundred inmates at the prison are from Hawaii. The state will pay about 36 (m) million dollars this year to house about 18-hundred-50 inmates in private prisons on the mainland. (Copyright 2005 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.)