Riot at jail near Ashland forced inmates' relocation

Riot at jail near Ashland forced inmates' relocation

About 70 jail inmates had to be relocated following a Saturday night riot at the Boyd County jail in Catlettsburg KY, near Ashland.

The riot happened at about 11:30 p.m., according to a press release on the jail’s Facebook page.

Ten maximum security inmates, all of whom had violent charges including murder, attempted murder, robbery, assault, and other violent crimes, had fought with two deputies, forcing them to retreat and wait for backup.

The deputies involved were unable to close the cell door before inmates forced their way out, but inmates were still contained in a secure hallway. While contained in the hallway, inmates stacked blankets, mail, toilet paper, and other flammable items against both entry doors and set them on fire.

Additional deputy jailers, police officers, sheriff's deputies, EMS and fire personnel from Boyd, Greenup, and Carter counties and the Kentucky State Police arrived to assist.

A plan was implemented, entry was made into the hallway where the inmates were rioting.

The fires were extinguished and deputy jailers were able to regain control of the inmates, who were restrained and removed from the area.

Due to heavy smoke, inmates from surrounding cells were evacuated to the recreation yard.

At this time, the facility is still housing inmates, but we have transferred 70 inmates to the Little Sandy Correctional Complex, Carter County Detention Center, and Pike County Detention Center.

At this time we are working to further reduce our population so a full assessment of the damage from both the fire and water can be completed.

Water damage to facility control systems is our main issue at this time.

Earlier news reports stated that inmates had been without water and electricity for several days, which is not true.

Electricity was never interrupted and water was only off for about 2 hours prior to the riot incident due to an inmate damaging a sprinkler head, which caused substantial water damage to facility control systems.

No inmates or staff received more than minor injuries during the incident.