Penitentiary of New Mexico Riot; 7; Historic Film Collection, Video 0007

We've been here for now about eight hours because at two o'clock this morning, some inmates at the New Mexico State Penitentiary took over control from the administration and the State Corrections Department. It's still a big mess if you want to know the truth about what's going on behind the walls of the Penitentiary. All we can tell you is that about 2.30 this morning, some guards somehow and other broke into the control center or that is some inmates broke into the control center where the guards were stationed and took over control of the Penitentiary. Since that time, National Guard has been called up. The State Police have been called out. All of the Santa Fe County Sheriff is here. The Santa Fe City Police are here. The Governor has arrived on the scene and as you can see in the background right now, the National Guard helicopters and National Guard troops from Santa Fe and Espanyola have been called out. General Miles, the head of the Agenda General National Guard is on hand here at the New Mexico Penitentiary site and all we are doing is standing by waiting to see what happens next. No one has yet found out exactly what the inmates of the Penitentiary want.

There have been people injured, two inmates and also two guard prison guards. There apparently are still more people injured. They remain in the confines, the Penitentiary. Everything that's happened has been within the confines of the Penitentiary. No one has escaped. Everything has happened inside the Penitentiary. The house is about 1100 inmates, 84 of those or now we understand about 100 of those inmates have said they want no further part of what's going on in there and no further part of this insurrection of the organization of the Penitentiary. They have given up and said, let the other folks take it we want, we want no further part. Mary Anguson arrived here after no break this morning. She flew over in a chartered helicopter, Mary when you flew over, there was smoke coming out of everywhere. What kind of tell me what it looked like as you came on the scene? Yes, Roger as we flew over it, it really took a while to get in close to what was going on. But it appeared that two or three possibly even four sections of the prison or cell blocks were on fire at this time.

There's no way of determining how many of the inmates may be responsible for the fires, how they set the fires, what in fact was burning. I've been talking to some of the fire officials who are here and they suspect that it was mattresses, they really aren't sure what else could have been on fire in there. And at the time that I was flying over it looked as though more were progressively being set. The latest rumor or whatever is going on is that cell blocks number three and four are also on fire right now. There is no determination yet at this time how many of the inmates may have been injured in these fires and what the purpose of the fires may have been. And also at the time we were flying over in one particular courtyard of the prison. We saw a lot of furniture had been tossed out of the windows, some broken chairs, broken beds, anything that looked wooden and was breakable had been tossed out the window. And we yet have heard nothing about what the purpose was behind that. All right, I know as we stand here about a quarter to a mile to a half a mile, maybe closer to a mile away from the penitentiary, you can look to that direction now and see

the hooms of white smoke pouring out. I'm not sure what a smoke is coming from whether it's coming from a fire that was set, a fire that's being put out or what? Also between here and there we can also see the National Guard. Right, that would coincide with the report I heard a while ago that cell blocks three and four had just gone up and smoke although fire officials really aren't sure exactly what areas the fires are contained in or if they are in fact contained. Okay, Murray, let you go find out what's going on now. Lee Williams has also joined me and with him is made on love. Stay police board chairman, Roger mainland has some of the latest information. He's been into the pen just a little while ago. What is it like in that, mainland? Well, it's quite a disaster at this time. Number of the cell blocks as you've just been told are on fire. There's water on the floors where some of the inmates have tried to put fires out. The warden's office is totally burned. The conference room, certain of the other rooms in the adjacent area. At this time negotiations are going on Lee with the prisoners with the prison officials.

And they have on occasion talked to certain inmates have come out. It seems to be probably different factions in different cell blocks and it's not all centralized in one place. Some of the inmates themselves in there are quite right, don't they? Oh yes, there are some I'm sure that would like to be released at this time and some have been able to escape and surrender. When you say escape, you mean escape from the other inmates? It's all contained within the walls. Well, I say escape from whatever their dangers are in there and they have come out and they are being detained now by prison officials and they are being talked to. And is there any indication? I know we've talked to the warden and Johnny Ramming from the corrections department. Is there any indication this thing was very well organized? We just kind of happened all of a sudden or what? Have you had a chance to talk to him but can you find out about it? I have not talked to the prison officials about what started this. No, whether it was spontaneous or what actually happened. I, I'm inclined to think it's probably more spontaneous than organized.

Thank you. Thank you, ma'am, for going by. As I said a few moments ago, warden Griffin has been out trying to brief the members of the press on what is going on here and there and he has indicated us several times that what is important to him right now is to let the people inside the penitentiary know that they are taking steps. Thank you.

In case you just now happen to have turned on your TV set, what has happened is the inmates have taken over control of the New Mexico state penitentiary. They did that about two o'clock this morning. Look, I know the governor was awake and ordered this morning. Lee Williams is with me incidentally and you've had a chance to meet with the governor. You signed the state police office. Lee wants you to tell us a little bit about what the governor said and what's going on. Of course, Roger, the governor is very concerned and he has been monitoring this since he got up early this morning. He was over state police headquarters earlier. Right now, he's less than a quarter mile away from us monitoring the whole situation.

Of course, the big question is why and that is what I asked him in an interview a little bit earlier. But so far, this whole thing has been a very black spot on the King administration. First there was the escape of 11 inmates just last December 9th and now this. So the question I think is why and that's what I asked the governor in this interview. That was Governor Bruce King talking with Lee Williams about 45 minutes ago. Since that interview was conducted, that was done accidentally at the New Mexico state police headquarters office. Governor King has arrived here near the penitentiary. He arrived here with Linda Quijo, one of his administrative assistants with Brian Sander Hoff, who was another of his administrative assistants, who has been here to help him. But he also arrived with General Miles, the head of the National Guard. I might say that the state police were calling that off early this morning, as soon as the word spread that this was going on, and I dropped by the state police office this morning. And when I got there about 4 or 30 or 5 o'clock state police chief Martín Vihil was there.

I know Lee, he was still there a short while ago. He is now in there with the governor. He had a chance to talk with chief Vihil. Right. I didn't have chance to talk to chief. Of course, he's very concerned about what's going on. So one thing I did talk to him about is the injuries. There has been at least one inmate and one guard injured and taken to the hospital. And that was the first thing that I did talk to him about in this interview. Of course, Roger, many of the inmates in there are probably being held and being in this situation very much against their will. There are relatives that have come out here to visit. They are very concerned about the people in there that they may be in harm's way at the hands of some other inmates. I talked to one woman earlier. Her name is Gwen Chitty. She's from El Paso. She has a relative in there. Essentially, he was accused of a convicted of a very minor crime and serving a 60-day sentence. And she is, to say the least, very worried about him. That was Lee Williams.

He was talking with a relative of someone who is at the New Mexico State Penitentiary. And we have received information since the time the Lee did the interviews with the police chief and with the governor that apparently four people have been injured. And information we have received from St. Vincent Hospital, which is a nearest hospital facility to the state penitentiary, are that two guards, Elton Curry and Mike Hernandez, are apparently in fair condition at St. Vincent Hospital. We don't know the extent of their injuries or how those injuries were sustained. Once again, these were names we received from the hospital. We don't want, we're not going to verify them for sure. These were names we have received from the hospital. Apparently those are the two inmates. I'm sorry. The two guards who apparently have been injured are Ray Vallejo's and Donald Morris. And I just got the names confused because those are in fact the guards. Those are in fact the inmates. Anyway, four people have been taken to St. Vincent Hospital. As we understand, there are more people in there that have been injured. And I might explain to you just a bit about the process of what they did. You would think that once they took command of the penitentiary, they would have total command.

What the inmates have done is the people who have taken command have taken all of the walkie-talkies away from the guards. They have then come and did the radio network within the penitentiary and they have been communicating with the penitentiary officials throughout since about 2.30 this morning. And that has been going on. The discussions which we have overheard on our police monitors are interesting to say at least the guards are constantly, once in a while, talking to the control center and the inmates and the inmates have now come up with code names and they're talking from different parts of the penitentiary. The entire penitentiary is right now in the control of the inmates. And we're going to pause for just a moment to catch your breath and we'll be back with more in a special half hour report from Santa Fe in just a moment. I'm Roger Bimer with Lee Williams and Mary Ingersaw live from just outside the New Mexico State Penitentiary. And if you just turned on your TV set at about 2 o'clock this morning the inmates took over control of the state penitentiary. Lee, you just finished doing a series of closer looks as to what was going on at the

penitentiary and I wonder if you would kind of explain how they might have taken over control of the penitentiary. Well, the basic question of how is that some things happened in there, had to have happened in there that shouldn't have. First of all, the cell blocks themselves lead into a central corridor. You have guards that stay in that central corridor and they can look into the cell blocks. Generally the guards have a set of keys but those keys will only open like one or two doors to get out to where they are now they've had to go through four or five or six doors. So the basic thing is first they got the guard with one set of keys and then the question is how did they get through the rest of the part. From what we understand there is a glass wired in glass in case to closure in there it's called a central command post. It stands kind of midway between the cell area and the outside of the inside of the prison. There's still not outside the gates or anything.

From what we understand the inmates were able to break through that glass. That's relative a new glass too is a not warden griffin said that it was just installed very recently. There's been a lot of new construction and that's part of it. Why they were able to break through that glass there are guards who are supposed to be inside there and why they couldn't stop it. We don't know there may be a good reason but you know you question that. But let's talk a little bit about the design of the penitentiary. It's really one big hallway where a bunch of dormitories sprouting off to the side and some of those dormitories have cells in them, is that correct? Essentially that's true. Some of them lock cells or fill with lock cells. Others are like barracks, a military barracks. They just all fit into a central hallway and usually one or two doors, usually two. We'll open up which will let you get into that central hallway that everybody can walk up and down and the guards are in the area between the two doors. They're locked away from the prisoners and they have access through the other door to the hallway.

The whole of one of the guards of Captain I believe is where they first got their keys and they got them through one or two places and then they've gotten through the rest and something's happened that shouldn't have happened or they couldn't have gotten out as far as they've gotten. And now the inmates have become the landlords of the penitentiary if you want to call it that at this particular point. Absolutely. One other thing about that is it's supposed to be set up where if a guard or a captain or even the warden, if he's captured in there, he loses his command. Other people are not supposed to listen to that man if he says these inmates are going to kill me. You've got to let us through. They're not supposed to do it. They're supposed to, you know, if it comes down to it, leave them in there and let what happens happens. So I don't know if something like that happened that they were in threat to let them through. We'll find out as soon as we get in there. We're going to find out and I might say the warden, of course, is not in there. The warden is in his residence, which is nearby and he is there with the governor and the chief of the state police and other officials from the governor's office. Mary, perhaps you can update us as to what the situation is there right now and then I'll try and recap as to what's happened. What's the update?

Well, as far as I know right now, Roger, there is not much new information. However, Ernie Mills and John Andrews, of Channel 13, are in the prison right now. Apparently, they are negotiating with the inmates. Prison Warden, Jerry Griffin, had suggested Ernie Mills and then the inmates apparently turned around and said they wanted John Andrews. Andrews went in there, oh, half hour, maybe 45 minutes ago. And there has really been very little about what they have said, what's been done, anything like that. Of course, the warden is right now meeting with governor King. We have had no reports of how those talks are progressing. I also might mention that a lot of family members who know people here who have family here, who are very concerned, a lot of them have been parked on either side of the road in front of the prison. They've been talking to us and we can't really give them much information other than what we know. We're stationed, as I've said a couple of times, about three quarters of a mile away from the penitentiary. Our line of sight is about what you've seen through your TV cameras and all we can do is guess as to what's going on behind the walls. As we see the National Guard troops in some kind of maneuver out here, apparently practicing how to run across the ground and a few things like that, and we don't know what's going

to happen next. I don't think anybody does. But let me just wrap up as we leave you on a special half hour report to say that about two o'clock this morning, 1142 inmates of the New Mexico State Penitentiary took command of the penitentiary away from the organized forces of the criminal justice department. And since that time, it has been havoc behind the fences and behind the walls of the state penitentiary. We don't know now what is going on back there. We assume there are a few fires going on. There are apparently still some injured people standing in there waiting to be attended to. We overheard a conversation a while ago where one of the inmates told the people, we have some former medical corpsmen who are inmates in the penitentiary and they're taking care of the injured. Four of the other injured apparently have been taken to a hospital here in Santa Fe. No one has yet died that we know of, and all we can do is stand by and let you know what's happening and that's what we're going to do. With Lee Williams and Mary Ingersoll standing outside the New Mexico State Penitentiary, I'm Roger Bimer.

I witness news four presents a special closer look. The state prison under siege. Now here is I witness news correspondent Roger Bimer. To the untrained observer, it was the sights and sounds of war. To the governor of the state, it was a nightmare. I have made every effort to eliminate any bloodshed, whatever, and I'm sorry for any we've had, but I certainly do not move dad to it. To the families, it was an agonizing 36 hours. Well, we haven't heard from him at all. He's not on the list of the injured at the hospital. We've been calling the FOP since yesterday and nothing, so we decided to come down from Albuquerque and find out for ourselves what's going on. Fear has gripped us now, really, because we don't know. My mother is very sick just crying all day and night, and she wants to know about it.

How do you feel? Well, we feel bad. A tale of tragedy continues to unfold, even at this hour here on the outskirts of the New Mexico State Penitentiary, as I speak to you live. It seems just about every hour, two more names are added to the list of the dead. Architects who toured the facility this afternoon say that gymnasium may collapse. Damage estimates vary from 8 million to 40 million. The death toll may go as high as 50 or higher. The siege of the New Mexico State Pen, the worst prison riot in the history of this country, is the subject of this special report. It will be hearing from a number of reporters on our staff who have been here since early Saturday morning, when it all started. Hal Blyce reports. It started in a small way with an illegal alcohol party in one of the cell blocks.

A prison guard, one of the 22 on duty that night, tries to break it up, and he is overpowered. The prisoners take his keys and make their way to the prison's central control room, which gives them access to remote control locks in the communication system there, by 2.50 an AM on February 2nd, the New Mexico State Penitentiary belongs to its inmates. Early morning, Governor Bruce King has alerted state police and National Guard troops, the prison is surrounded by 3 AM, and there are 14 hostages. Warden Jerry Griffin starts the first of a series of meetings with the news media outside the gates of the institution. Boxing at 2 o'clock this morning, I was notified that the Captain Roy Ball had been taken hostage, and the pongoing institution, the inmates had taken the keys from him and had opened that game control of the institution. The men are in there now. There's other than some burning, the other definite inmate leaders that are in control. People aren't being hurt, they're trying to keep a disposition on things, keep things

under control. We're negotiating with them, we're talking with them, and as things develop, we will, I will keep trying to keep you briefed on three hour intervals as to what's developing. We continue to try to show good faith with the inmates by trying to negotiate with them. We do have communication link with them now by the phone. They have asked for some 10 gas masks, and they've asked for a couple of stretches to go in, and we've been responding to these requests. They themselves ask the Deputy Warden Bob and Toya negotiate with them, along with one representative of the news media, Mr. Ernie Mills has gone in, and is representing the media in that as a one as the news rep that will be talking with the men there over the negotiations. We continue to try to be reasonable with the men and listen to exactly what their concerns are. A lot of their concerns have not yet been voiced. I don't know exactly this point in time what their primary concern is with regards to negotiation. The reports we get from those that are very close, it looks like at least 10 to 12 prisoners

are dead, and most of those were in cell block five. And was the smoke in relation or standing well, I'm not sure what it was. Were they murdered, do you think? I don't know. 10 to 12, and I'm not even sure they're just taking the information from those prisoners that are coming out. Was there a fire in sub-like five? Well, there's been two or three fires all around, and I don't know which ones, the fires we're in and which ones weren't, but are there reports of murders? Well, I think some of those were, I'm sure, were murdered. The prison burns, and the sirens of the ambulances continue to wail as the injured are taken to St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe. Reports filter out that people are dead inside, but none of the dead are hostages. After 8 a.m., around 80 inmates say they want no part of what's going on, and they separate themselves in a corner of the recreation yard. Those left seem to organize, set up radio communications around the facility, and begin talking with each other, and the tense negotiators outside.

All right, we can do it. Everything's okay over here. The inmates announced 11 grievances, including overcrowded conditions, bad food and harassment, and say they want to talk to the press around midday. By mid afternoon, 300 inmates had found their way to the recreation yard, and the prison continued to burn. At 11 on Saturday evening, two reporters finally did enter the prison to talk with inmates at the threat of a hostage being killed. A guard is released. Three more follow-around midnight. At 2.30 a.m., the inmates call an end to that day's negotiations. Warden Griffin announces that nothing more will be done until the next day. It was late that night, Saturday night, when hundreds of news people and concerned family members watched the prisons smolder quietly in the cold darkness that much of the killing occurred. A plan to storm the pin is put aside early in the morning on Sunday, more National Guardsmen arrive in almost 500 inmates of a band in the siege and are waiting in the

recreation yard. Mr. Rodriguez just told me that he would give myself, Mr. Stevens, if we have a home with your talk here, his word in writing that the five of us will be transferred out of his pedagogy. I say it again. Can you swing a camp? Can you do that again? I can. I can do that again. I can do that again. I can do that again. I can do that again. Okay, I have a shirt, Colby, the demons, the Tudoran, and Candelaria. Candelaria. Okay. Two more guards are released around noon, leaving five. Another is let go around 130 and 15 minutes after that, a state police SWAT team stormed from the prison. No shots are fired. National Guardsmen also enter and the inmates inside are let out.

It is only now that the negotiators and the news media who have been with them confirmed the mutilations that have been going on. We turn into the Saliporte area, which is close to, it's the area of the control center for the main quarter of the Penitentiary. There was an inmate laying in the water with a note pinned to his chest. It crossed it around his mouth. All the glass was gone out of the Saliporte. I've never seen that kind of devastation anywhere in my life. The problems that evolved out of the insurrection within the Penitentiary were monumental, medically. There was a constant shuttle of injured from within the walls to hospitals in nearby Santa Fe, some were even transferred to Albuquerque. The trained medics and pilots of the New Mexico National Guard would become so accustomed to evacuating injured soldiers from the war zones of Vietnam had memories rekindled. They did what they could to save the lives of inmates who had been slaughtered by knives and pipes and crowbars swung from the hands of their fellow inmates. When the hospitals in Santa Fe were filled, the choppers made longer runs to Albuquerque.

Our emergency medical treatment was administered to those who had been overcome by smoke, to those who had been severely chopped apart, to those who had taken every drug imaginable. As the ram paging inmates broke into the Penitentiary Hospital and the pharmacy areas. Outside the office of the medical investigator this morning, a gruesome sight, a refrigerated semi-truck, a temporary morgue. Inside the bodies of inmates who had burned to death, inmates whose heads had been chopped off, inmates whose heads had been gouged with bedposts, inmates who three days ago were sleeping in their cells and beds, only to be awakened, and then killed during the worst prison riot in the history of the United States. The story of what went on inside the pen is one that is so bloody as I am sure you can already tell that so gruesome that it even hurts people who have been in there to even talk about it. We've talked about it in the hallways of the capital with people who have been in there and you can see they labor to tell you about what they've seen.

People walking down the hallways carrying dismembered heads, arms being tossed out of windows, inmates being tied to chairs and then burned, walkers being found stuffed with bodies carvings on the chests, notes tacked to the bodies of inmates that are floating three to six inches of water, signs that no one really wants to see or talk about. Mary and her son of our staff had the opportunity to go through the penitentiary today. She saw none of those things that I just talked about, and she did see the aftermath of 36 hours of terror. Ever since the prison siege began, the curiosity has been growing as to what the place looks like after the fires and riots and bloodbaths. We got a chance to see some of the prison today, but not without warning. If you're going to have to assume that risk, if you do it back, want to go in. Again, we're trying to make this open, but we first chose things here that aren't completely settled.

We're trying to get you in and make you aware of things as quickly as we can, be aware of those concerns. Some of the survivors of the siege are being kept outside with blankets as protection against the winter chill. As we approach the inmates, they hollered out to us for food or water or medical attention. One prisoner claimed he hadn't been fed more than a hotdog in two days. Once inside, it was total destruction. Windows were smashed, chairs overturned. The floors, a sea of mud, with soaking rags and clothes, and up to two inches of water. The inmates got to everything supposedly inaccessible in the prison. Medical supplies were broken into and destroyed. Syringes were scattered everywhere, and there were reports of severe drug overdoses during the siege. The prisoners also destroyed parts of the infirmary. Things like crackers and bread, which officials told me, are so valuable to an inmate confined with limited canteen supplies, were now waterlogged and worthless. Photos from prison records were lying around. One of the most striking aspects of the destruction was the brute force needed to rip toilets

and sinks apart. The deputy warden had a simpler explanation. Well, they had complete access to the institution. They had tools from mechanical services. They had all kind of heavy duty hardware to do destruction of the state property. Although the known dead had been removed for the tour, prison officials couldn't remove all the evidence of a blood bath. One cell was blood spattered on the floor, the walls. This was cell three and cell block four. Yet just a few cells away, a spotlessly clean cell, looking like it just didn't belong there. We asked the deputy warden again how that was possible. Well, normally when you have a cell or a housing unit, which is clean as in this situation, that means that whoever was involved there, you probably had something to do with the riot and the insurrection within the institution. In spite of all this destruction, there are still some signs of life that are relatively intact. There's a notebook full of letters that an inmate wrote, package of cigarettes, completely intact.

As we left, we were shocked at the destruction we had seen yet curious about what we hadn't seen and had only heard about. An ambulance driver told us about a body he had seen with a severed hand, a severed head, or a man whose face had been carved up with a knife, or how snitches had been burned alive in the gymnasium. Human destruction inmate against fellow inmate, and officials admit there may be more inside. In the New Mexico state penitentiary, Mary Ingersoll, eyewitness news for. I suppose the question you asked now was we stand out here alive from the penitentiary on this Monday evening is, where do we go from here? But question is being asked by everyone tonight. For sure, there will be lawsuits filed by the families of inmates, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, action by committees, and action by the legislature, and investigation after investigation. Governor Bruce King made it clear this morning that Attorney General Jeff Binghaman, who just three weeks ago today completed a report on the escape of 11 inmates from that penitentiary back in December, will be the man in charge of this next investigation.

Today, Binghaman talked with reporters about his next investigation, which may take six months. I think it's going to be a follow-up on what we did earlier for the governor, but it'll be much more intensive. It'll try to establish exactly what occurred when the riot began, what parts of the security system failed that allowed it to occur, and then after that what events took place up until the present time really. Jeff, you issued a report on the December 9th escape of all the people from the penitentiary, and I wonder if there was ever any inclination and something like this would be anticipated. What I gathered during the investigation we did earlier was that rumors of prisonerscapes, rumors of riots are common throughout not only this institution, but most penal institutions,

and it's very easy after the fact to say that particular rumor should have been listened to. I think at the time we completed our report, which was nearly three weeks ago, or it was three weeks ago today, we did not have any heart intelligence that something like this was going to happen. What should the legislators do? They've got about a week to go, how should they react now? I think that they are going to have to put some substantial additional funds into the corrections department budget, not only to repair what's occurred, but to solve some of the basic problems that were covered in the earlier report, and in the criminal justice study committee's report. I think the recognition of inadequate staffing, inadequate pay, lack of training of correctional officers.

I think those things are so obviously needing correction at this point that I'm sure they're going to address them. I can assure you that the Senate is only behind your program, if you need more money, you'll get it. If you need more services, you'll get it. If you need more committees, you'll get it. So I think you can count on that all over the neighborhood. With me now, as Lee Williams, who's done a great deal of studying at the New Mexico State Penitentiary, and Lee, I think the remarks made there by Senator Ike Smalley, the President of the Pro Tem of the State Senate, indicate to a lot of people exactly the feeling of the legislature. Absolutely, Roger. I think the commitment on the part of legislators now is nothing but total toward getting the prison refixed up, re-staffed, and going again. All the legislators I talked to you today, I was in the Capitol all day today, said what they're going to do is they're putting this first above almost any other project going in the state. I talked to Vernon Kerr just a short while ago, a representative from Los Alamos. He said, we are going to fund this prison rebuilding, and after that, we'll see what else

we can fund. Of course, that brings a lot of questions about the tax rebates that everybody has hoped we could get, and a number of things like that. I think a lot of people with tax rebate thing has been played out quite a bit on the media, and I think it only fair to indicate that a lot of the money is going to be spent on the state penitentiary here will not be spent in the next four or five months, and that's where our tax rebate dollars will be coming from, and be from the money for this six months. The money to be expended, apparently according to the governor, his news cameras today will be over the next five years. They're obviously going to have to spend a lot of money right now on that institution, because there is no betting, there are no cuts, there are no sheets, there are no pillows, the kitchens have been torn apart, the recreational facilities have been torn apart. All right, I talked to Secretary of Finance, David King just this afternoon, a few hours ago, said, how much are you looking at? Actually, they don't know for sure. Appropriations for this year, they're looking at $24 million, $24 million to get the facility back on its feet.

Now, there's a possibility that a substantial part of that would be covered by insurance. There is up to $17 million of insurance coverage available. It's downfall if the insurance company will be spending that much, the state really doesn't expect that much, expecting probably in the neighborhood of 11 to 12 million, kind of if they're lucky to help rebuild it. That would offset that much of that $24 million. I think it's difficult for us to talk about what happened in there and explain to the people what has gone on in there and how that building has been destroyed. I think a while ago, I said somebody explained to me that looks like the inside of a wrecked battleship. There have been fires everywhere. I think last night in the story we did in many of our continuing stories, we talked about how the once polished floors are now nothing but three inches underwater and everything is going to have to be replaced. It's going to be a total destruction and have to do it. One of the things I've been working on is putting together some things on what the place looked like before, what happened, what could have contributed to it. I talked to an inmate last month when I was doing a series and he was working in the

construction industry department. He was saying, you know, it was very ironic because he said and we ran his interview in the story. You know, we could take over this place any time for one or two, but it would be stupid on our parts. It would be stupid and we wouldn't want to do that. I think we should also talk a little bit about how this whole thing started. I know that was my question to the governor this morning. We spent two and a half or three days out here covering what had happened and the way the whole thing started is really a fluke when you get right down to it. When you get down to it, this information is not totally confirmed, but this is the way that they think it happened. And one of the cell blocks is called F2. It is not a maximum security area. It's more like a dormitory. The inmates in there had brewed up some kind of home hooch some way. As I said, it's not confirmed, but this is what they are saying they think happened. And the way they brewed up some hooch, they were drinking in there having a party, one of the guards then went in there, he went in there and tried to break it up. That, I apparently made them come unglued.

They grabbed the guard. They held him. I guess they probably started beating him up. They took his keys. Okay, at that point, they were in serious trouble. Not anything like the serious trouble they're in now, but that set it off. They went out, they started unlocking cell blocks with those keys, and then it just started snowballing from there. The inmates porting out into the corridors as we understand and becoming a very, very crazy, crazy environment, the killings starting soon after. The first thing they did, of course, is they unlocked all the cells and then they went down through that glass and closed chamber. The glass and closed chamber is the midway point in there, it's the control center. And let me stop you just a second. The thing about that glass control center that amazes me, is that glass is one and a quarter inches thick. Four layers of tempered glass with the stuff in between and finished Rodriguez, who was a good-sized man as I understand it, went to the, went to the factory where they manufactured the glass and tried to break the glass in the sledgehammer and couldn't do it, but yet the inmates did it.

If you've seen pictures of it, it's been bashed in, incredibly. It's ironic because you look at it the way it was just a short while ago, at the time I took it to the facility, there were bars up over the whole thing. If there had been bars, it's very doubtful the inmates would have gotten that far. They could have controlled the inside, just the cell block area, but that's not nearly all the pin. They wouldn't have gotten out to the administration area through the last gates. If they hadn't been able to get in that control center, they were in, you know, probably would have never gotten this far. Timonus Dooley, let's go down to Mary Ingersoll and she was inside the confines of the Penitentiary today looking at what went on. She and Hal Brice are right down below us. Mary? After waiting outside all day, freezing and this freezing weather. And when we went in there, I don't think any of us were really prepared for what we saw.

Of course, we were hearing all kinds of varying reports and rumors and innuendos about the destruction that had gone on in there. And some of us reporters have been in there under, you know, obviously better conditions, interviewing prisoners for news stories, interviewing the warden, etc. When everything was very clean, very neat, very sterile looking. Well, after going in there today, I mean, it's just, there is no comparison. All at the holocaust, call it a apocalypse now, call it whatever you like. But the thing is really just a gutted shell. And there had been some question about whether or not the thing could be rebuilt. There's just a cement wall standing. And as Roger mentioned earlier in this program, there's some question about whether the gymnasium roof is going to stay intact. That could present another danger. Everything is gutted out and a lot of the reporters really not prepared at all for what we were going to say. Nor did we dress to go in for what we were going to say. Some of us were just in our normal working shoes and jeans. We all came out of there completely soaking wet after going through cell block and cell block. And the prison was quite selective in what they would let us see.

We were really not shown, as far as I can see, we were not shown the worst of it. Of course, we were not shown any bodies for, I think, obvious reasons. They really didn't have to show us any bodies, however. There were, you know, blood spattered cells. And meanwhile, the inmates' families are waiting outside, waiting for us to give some word on what we saw. If we saw any one of their loved ones, if we could in any way identify their loved ones, the inmates who are still alive, who are standing outside, talking to us, telling us how they are being treated and what the conditions are. The Archbishop Sanchez was here, I believe it was yesterday. He was praying for the families, praying for the inmates. He had been in there and he told the inmates, the inmates' families a little bit about what was going on. I think he tended to downplay it, however. I'm not sure how much he was able to see, however, he said that things were not too bad. He, in this afternoon, in fact, he held a prayer session for a lot of the families, which I think has really given them quite a bit of support. Yeah, Mary, I think we should mention also that when Warden Griffin came out last time, he did mention that two cell blocks, cell block one and cell block two in addition to cell

block six, which was open earlier today, have been mopped up enough so that they can throw mattresses on the floor in the various cells and at least bed the prisoners down for the evening. I think the most important part of this story right now are the families who are about 100 yards away from us now. There are many people who are still waiting for some word as to whether or not they're a loved one or a friend is alive inside. The Santa Fe chapter of the Red Cross is just pulled up with a bus. They are trying to feed and get hot coffee for those who have been waiting all day. Warden Griffin came out not too long ago, about 10 minutes ago with another partial list of the fatalities and casualties of the prisoners. We got from A to G, people who are left start with last names from L to Z and those people are very tense and needless to say at this time. Right now we'd like to go back to Roger Barton. Thank you, Hal. As Senator Smiley said, it's going to take money, it's going to take committees, it's going to take time to find out what caused the most incredible example of human behavior that I've ever seen or heard about.

How do you explain why a man can be seen walking the halls of a penitentiary carrying another man's head in his hands? How do you explain the shattering of a piece of projectile-resistant glass an inch and a quarter thick by some inmates who had no projectiles, apparently just anger? How do lawmakers and politicians sleep at night knowing they have refused to act to relieve overcrowding at the state penitentiary? What do you say to the families of inmates who have behaved well and who would have been released this week but are now dead as a result of fights within the state penitentiary? Why does it take a riot to cause a newsstand to sell out of the daily newspapers twice in one day? There are those who are to be commended for their actions in this last day, the last few days. Miraculously, there were no deaths when the state police SWAT team went in, National Guard also had to move in, 650 troops or so. No deaths at all during this insurrection except those deaths that were caused by fellow inmates. Milicious destruction by a group of men who perhaps more than anything else wanted to make a name for themselves, have some retribution and perhaps be seen on TV.

As one person said to me today, it kind of makes you wonder about the human race. For lay Williams and Mary Ingersoll and Hal Bryce and all of us at Iowa News, I'm Roger Bimer from just outside the state penitentiary. On both sides as you go down, and again, right behind you again, we'll see the glass here, we'll see down here on the ground also some various quantities of drugs. That's where we're starting to die? No, no, we're starting to die.