Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesman Solomon Graves issued a press release this morning with details of a small prison riot that apparently occurred last night at the Varner Unit in Grady.

Graves wrote that last night around 10:30 p.m., approximately a dozen inmates in one of the housing barracks there began breaking windows and starting small trash fires. According to Graves, corrections officers were able to quickly regain control of the barracks, though one officer sustained what Graves called “a minor injury that did not require hospitalization.” No inmates were reportedly injured in the disturbance.

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Varner Unit is located in Lincoln County, 28 miles south of Pine Bluff. It has 338 employees on staff, and a capacity of 1,714 inmates.

CORRECTION: a previous version of this post attributed to Solomon Graves several statements, including that inmates had jumped guards and an ambulance had been called in. This was actually information submitted by another source with knowledge of the issues at Varner, but was mistakenly attributed to Graves. We regret this error.

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