Four Correctional Officers Assaulted at ACI in January

The on-the-job dangers of being a correctional officer were evident last month at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston.

Four COs were assaulted, according to Richard Ferruccio, president of the International Brotherhood of Correctional Officers, the union that represents COs working at the ACI.

The first officer was bitten on his hand at the High Security Center while trying to cuff an inmate.

The second was assaulted while working in the Intake Service Center segregation unit and “suffered a serious injury to his arm which required surgery to repair along with minor abrasions to his face,” Ferruccio said.

The two other officers were assaulted in separate incidents in Maximum Security — one was punched while breaking up a fight between two inmates, the other was struck in the face in an unprovoked attacked while carrying food trays from the afternoon meal.

That incident, on Jan. 29, resulted in a serious facial injury that required a large number of stitches, Ferruccio said.

And then, on Jan. 30, staff had to deal with a large fight that broke out in the Intake Service Center at the end of the final evening visiting period.

The fight was between three inmates but escalated when two civilian visitors joined in the fight, throwing punches at one of the inmate in the fight.

Staff responded and “immediately gained control of the situation,” Ferruccio said. The inmates were transported to segregation and the civilians, who were not identified, were arrested by the state police and transported to the Lincoln Barracks.

“These assaults followed a yearlong trend of escalating violence within our facilities,” Ferruccio said. “So far this January we have had 60 inmates booked for fighting and or assault compared with 38 in December 2014. We have made our concerns for staff safety know to our department management team. We hope with Jim Weeden’s recent appointment as the permanent Associate Director of Institutions and Operations we will begin to see changes needed to protect our members from inmate violence. Until then staff are advised to be on an elevated state of alert when working in our facilities.”