For the last several days, the Butler County Prison was on a modified lockdown due to safety concerns.
Warden Joe DeMore said the concerns stemmed from a maintenance issue, but he declined to elaborate.
DeMore says the jail was completely locked down for a couple days last week, and then a modified lockdown started on Friday which allowed for inmates to get some time out of their cells while the maintenance issue continued to be addressed. The lockdown did not affect visitors.
“Friday was a county holiday, so we wanted to work on a plan to make sure the inmates weren’t locked down the entire weekend,” DeMore said in an interview. “On Friday, the inmates were put on a modified recreation schedule. We allowed them out 4 hours out per day.
DeMore says no procedures or policies will need to be changed as a result of this incident. He also said the problem did not have to do with a mail issue. Last year, six Butler County prison workers were sickened after coming into contact with synthetic marijuana, which got into the jail through the mail.
The prison is expected to be back up and running normally at some point on Tuesday.
