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Prisoners surrender after daylong riot in Australia

Prisoners rioting at an Australian prison surrendered yesterday, 24 hours after chasing away guards and climbing to the rooftop to denounce overcrowding and ill treatment at the jail, police said.

Police brokered an agreement with the 39 prisoners in the high-security compound of the Port Augusta Prison, about 320km north of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.

They made no demands during the standoff but wanted “some recognition that they think there is a problem,” South Australia Police Assistant Commissioner Graeme Barton told reporters.

The riot began on Thursday afternoon after an outdoor recreation session was canceled. Inmates used makeshift weapons to break windows, air conditioners and computers before taking to the roof and hoisting mattresses on which they had written slogans against overcrowding and poor treatment at the prison.

All of the prison staff evacuated the building and there were no injuries.

South Australia Acting Premier Kevin Foley described the rioters as among the “hardest toughened criminals we have.”

He rejected claims by the state opposition and the prison officers’ union that the riot was in response to overcrowding.

“This has nothing to do with overcrowding. We are dealing with people who are not easy people to deal with, people who are in prison for a very, very long time for committing some of the worst crimes against civil society,” he said.

The Department for Correctional Services Web site says the Port Augusta Prison can accommodate 280 inmates; there are 363 inmates in the prison now.

Foley said the operational capacity of the jail was 368 prisoners.

Last May, Foley advocated a policy of “Rack ’em, pack ’em and stack ’em if that keeps our streets safe.”

But prison officers’ union official Peter Christopher said doubling up prisoners in cells was “a volatile mix.”
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