TELFAIR COUNTY, Ga. — It was a tense situation over in Telfair County after the warden was attacked at the Telfair State Prison.
Brian Randolph is the Executive Director Human and Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia. He said the prison system is crumbling.
"Georgia prisons are at a crisis level," Randolph said.
The Department of Corrections said the inmate used a homemade weapon. Randolph says that is not uncommon.
"They tear stuff apart to make these weapons. You know beds, ice coolers, anything metal that they can get their hands on, they’re going to make these homemade weapons and they’re going to use them," Randolph said.
Randolph said this attack is the result of several other attacks at the prison.
"You know I think that it has just built up and built up and it's like it's a volcano. Just builds, builds, and then it explodes so you know really wasn't surprised to see that the warden was stabbed because we've seen this before," Randolph said.
The Corrections Department confirmed the warden was stabbed after prisoners wouldn't go on a lockdown after the shakedown. Andrew Macfarlane was promoted to run the facility in June last year.
A spokesperson from the department said, "The Warden was treated by facility medical personnel for superficial wounds and is expected to be okay."
Randolph said several people reached out to him when they heard their loved ones were being gassed after the warden was stabbed.
The Department of Corrections said they used "less-lethal munitions to get the inmates to comply with commands."
Randolph said part of the problem is the lack of officers at the prison.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that 36 correctional officers are monitoring more than 1,400 of some of the most dangerous inmates.
"You know I think it’s up in the seventies, high seventies percentage of vacancies in Georgia when it comes to prisons," Randolph said.
Randolph said officers would call for a wellness check if they didn’t hear from those working their shifts at the prison.
"They’ll then call 911 and ask 911 to send a deputy to Telfair because they can’t get anybody to answer the phone.”
You can read the full statement from the Department of Corrections about the incident:
"We can confirm that an incident occurred at Telfair SP today at approximately 11:30 a.m. While staff were conducting a shakedown to remove contraband from a single dorm, the offenders refused to lockdown. At that time, one inmate assaulted the Warden with a homemade weapon. The Warden was treated by facility medical personnel for superficial wounds and is expected to be okay. The inmate responsible will be held accountable and turned over for investigation and prosecution accordingly.
During the incident, less-lethal munitions were deployed to get the inmates to comply with commands.
The facility remains on lockdown as standard procedure following an incident. There were no additional injuries to staff or inmates reported, and there was minimal damage within the dorm to the televisions."