A riot at a federal penitentiary in Three Rivers this morning has left one prisoner dead and 22 others injured.
San Antonio hospitals were treating the injured while federal prison officials said in a news release that they had gotten control of the situation, which broke out about 7 a.m.
Friday afternoon, prison officials identified the slain inmate as Servando Rodriguez, 38. He was serving a 54-month sentence for violating his federal supervision related to a conviction on charges of possession with intent to distribute marijuana and being in this country illegally after being previously deported to Mexico. No staff members were injured at the prison, which houses 1,160 male medium-security inmates, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Fifteen inmates were taken to area medical facilities, including some in San Antonio. Seven others were treated at the prison for minor injuries. A Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said Friday afternooon that three inmates have been returned to Three Rivers.
"Staff immediately and effectively responded and the incident was quickly contained," Three Rivers spokesman Dennis Molina said in a statement. "The cause of this incident is unknown at this time and an investigation has begun."
"The institution is secure, all inmates are accounted for and at no time was there a threat to the local community."
Some criminal intelligence sources said they believe the riot might have been between Mexican-American inmates who consider themselves Chicanos and inmates who have closer ties to Mexico. A similar type of faceoff occurred last week at a Houston jail that houses federal pre-trial inmates.
"At this time, we have received no indication that there's any connection between the fights at the Federal Detention Center (in Houston) and the fights that occurred this morning at the institution," said Traci Billingsley, a BOP spokeswoman in Washington, D.C.
Apparently, there's growing resentment and bad blood between the groups of inmates.
Prison officials could not confirm those reports, saying the matter remains under investigation.
"We certainly are not at this time going to speculate as to what happened," said Shauna Dunlap, spokeswoman for the FBI in Houston, whose Corpus Christi agents are investigating the incident. "That will be part of the investigation. We're not going to do a play-by-play on it in the media."
San Antonio emergency responders are assisting Live Oak County authorities and a University Hospital spokeswoman said five prisoners arrived there via helicopter shortly after the riot broke out.
"We may get more," hospital spokeswoman Leni Kirkman.
Prison spokeswoman Deborah Denham said 89.9 percent of prison positions are staffed and most prison jobs, 95 percent, are held by correctional officers.
"Our staff levels are good for correction service," Denham said.
Richard Wechsler, president of the local American Federation of Government Employees union, said the riot occurred during a time when the prison is least staffed. He said that during the midnight to 8 a.m. shift, there is only one guard for every 300 inmates.
"We do not have enough staff," Wechsler said, adding that the riot happened during breakfast, when the inmates are basically roaming about free.
He said the bureau is skewing the numbers.
"Four years ago they said that 125 officers was 95 percent, but today 110 officers is 95 percent," he said.
Fights among prisoners are fairly common, but homicides are rare, he said. Friday's death was the facilities third since 1990.
"If the town of Three Rivers knew how short we are and how dangerous it is they wouldn't put up with that."
The Three Rivers prison has seen its share of violence -- which had previously been undisclosed.
In June 2007, inmate Ernesto "Neto" Rodriguez, an alleged member of the Texas Mexican Mafia, the largest prison gang in Texas' state prison system, was stabbed there but survived.
In January, the FBI, San Antonio police and investigators with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice obtained a racketeering indictment against more than 30 members of the Texas Mexican Mafia. In that indictment, they charged Jacinto "Cache" Navajar, a purported gang general, with attempting to murder Rodriguez by stabbing and cutting him. The indictment cites the gang for committing 22 murders, mostly in San Antonio, since 2000.
Neither the BOP nor the FBI was prepared today to explain that previously undisclosed stabbing incident -- more than one year after it occurred.
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