The Salt Lake County jail was on lockdown over Thanksgiving weekend after an inmate assaulted an officer.
Sergeant Cammie Skogg is the public information officer for the Salt Lake County Corrections Bureau. She says the officer involved in the incident received minor injuries to his head and neck. He was sent to a hospital and released the same evening. Skogg says its standard procedure to go into lockdown anytime a staff member is assaulted.
“Obviously it leaves us with less staff than what we started with,” Skogg says. “In this case, the lockdown was essentially to make sure that we had enough staff that we could respond to any other incidences in the facility if we needed to.”
Two more incidents occurred on Saturday before the lockdown had been lifted. In one case, an inmate forced a cuff port to slam shut onto a nurse’s hand. Two hours later, an inmate spit on another officer. Skogg says none of the issues appear to be related.
“They do seem completely random,” Skogg says. “They were not in the same areas. Again, it doesn’t seem like any specific staff member was targeted. It’s just unusual that we have that many things taking place in the short amount of time that it did.”
Jail officials lifted the lockdown just after 7 am Monday.
