(March 28, 2008)

THREE RIVERS-- A prison riot at the Three Rivers Federal Prison claims the life of one inmate, meanwhile another prisoner is in critical condition, fighting for his life. The union representing the prison staff says a manpower shortage is what led to today's riot.

Officials said the prison is on lockdown tonight. It's expected it will be like that for several days while they figure what led to this violence. While no guards were hurt in the riot, the union contends if there were more guards on duty, this wouldn't have happened.

Authorities said around 6:30 on Friday morning, a riot broke out in two separate housing units at the 11 hundred bed federal prison in Three Rivers.

They said during the two fights, inmates used home-made weapons to stab one another. About 15 inmates were taken to hospitals in Beeville, Corpus Christi, Victoria and San Antonio, but one person, 38-year-old Servando Rodriguez, didn't make it.

"One inmate has died as a result of his injuries," said Dennis Molina, who is the Three Rivers Federal Prison Public Information Officer. 

"It doesn't scare me because it's not something that happens everyday," said Traci Gentry, a Three Rivers resident. "I think there should be tighter restrictions out there."

The FBI and prison officials are investigating what caused this riot, but they do know it involved prison gangs.

"This was a disturbance," said Richard Wechsley, who is the president of the prisoner staff's union at the Three Rivers Federal Prison. "It was a distrubance. It was gang related. I can't give you the information on the gangs for obvious reasons , but it was a gang related disturbance."

The union president for this prison staff told us this facility is understaffed and he believes not having enough people on duty may have led to this death and violence at the prison.

According to the union president, there is one guard on duty for every 300 prisoners. He said that's about half the amount of guards on the staff from only a few years ago when budget cuts hit the federal prison system.

"Every officer comes up to me as the union president and says what are you doing get the staffing better," Wechsley said. "This is ridiculous. This is crazy. This is dangerous."

Nobody has been charged for their role in the violence, but prison officials said those involved will be either disciplined or face criminal charges.

--Manuel De La Rosa, Area 3 News, mdelarosa@kiiitv.com