Font ResizeSHIRLEY - Seven correction officers at the maximum security Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley were hospitalized Monday afternoon as they worked to get prisoners into lock-down after a prisoner attacked an officer with a weapon.
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said the incident began at 1:30 p.m., when an inmate attacked an unidentified correction officer with a weapon in the prison's general population unit.
Two other correction officers who ran to restrain the armed prisoner were also hurt, Wiffin said.
An emergency response was initiated, and two minutes later, at 1:32 p.m., the general population unit was secured, and the prison was placed in lockdown, a condition in which it will remain pending an investigation, Wiffin said.
She said seven correctional officers in all were taken to the hospital following the incident, but Wiffin said she was unable to provide information on the severity of their injuries, where they were taken, or who they were.
She said the incident is under investigation by both the Department of Corrections and the Massachusetts State Police.
"The response by correction officers was quick and very effective in controlling the situation," Wiffin said. "They did an excellent job in quelling the situation."
