SOUTH SALT LAKE — Separate weekend lockdowns at the Salt Lake County Jail and at Utah State Prison facilities in Draper and Gunnison were lifted by Monday morning.
The lockdown at the jail, which had been in effect since early Friday, was lifted at 7 a.m. Monday. Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Cammie Skogg said the lockdown began when a deputy was hit in the head by an inmate while investigating claims from the man's cellmate that he was threatening to assault him.
The deputy was able to contain the man until backup deputies arrived and placed him into a secure cell, Skogg said. The deputy was then taken to the hospital to be checked as a precaution.
Whenever an officer is assaulted, the jail goes into lockdown per standard procedure, Skogg said. But during that lockdown, a nurse suffered a minor hand injury while visiting an inmate, and a second officer was spit upon by another inmate who wanted him to deliver some paperwork, she said.
"They just appear to be random, isolated incidents where the prisoners were irritated for whatever reason they were and decided to do what they did," Skogg said.
Jail officers decided to wait until they could meet Monday to figure out if there were any underlying causes for the inmates' apparent agitation. The decision was made to lift the lockdown when it was determined that the incidents were not related and there did not appear to be an underlying cause, she said.
Meanwhile at the Utah State Prison in Gunnison, a "scuffle" between approximately a dozen inmates on Sunday morning prompted officials with the Department of Corrections to lock down both the Gunnison and Draper facilities as a precaution, said spokeswoman Brooke Adams. The lockdowns at both facilities were lifted less than three hours later.
The fight was not believed to be gang related, Adams said.
Email: preavy@deseretnews.com
Twitter: DNewsCrimeTeam