CHESHIRE, Conn. — A corrections officer is recovering after being attacked by an incarcerated person at the Cheshire Correctional Institution on Thursday, officials said.
The incident happened just before 4:30 p.m. Thursday, while dinner was being served, according to the Connecticut Department of Correction (DOC).
An officer, who was not identified, was distributing trays of food when the individual started hitting the officer with his fists.
The officer was protecting an inmate who was being attacked by another inmate and sustained blows to the face and body resulting in multiple injuries, according to the AFSCME Local 387 Union.
Staff members responded and "quickly restrained" the individual, DOC said, and the individual was taken to the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution's Restrictive Housing Unit.
The officer who was attacked was taken to a hospital, where he was treated and released, DOC said.
“This is totally unacceptable. These unprovoked attacks must stop,” said DOC Commissioner Angel Quiros. “I will use whatever means I have at my disposal to ensure (sic) the safety of the brave men and women of this Agency."
President of AFSCME Local 387 Sean Howard called this attack "vicious, violent, and unprovoked," and that correction staff members are being put in "grave danger every day they go to work."
There have been three attacks on correctional officers around Connecticut and a total of four attacked officers in the past three weeks, AFSCME Local 387 said in a statement Thursday.
There is an active investigation regarding this incident. Quiros said that the individual will be "prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law" for this incident.
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