Press release
Attica, NY – Staff at Wyoming Correctional Facility conducted several dorm searches for
contraband at the medium security prison last week and recovered four make-shift weapons and
two unknown drugs.
During the search, one staff member needed to be transported to a local hospital after being
exposed to a white powdery substance that was recovered from an inmate’s mattress.
The searches were conducted by officers on Wednesday, March 6th.
Two separate searches were conducted by staff.
One dorm and the inmates assigned to it, were searched and two inmate’s cubes in another dorm were searched that day. In the search of the two inmate’s cubes, a piece of sharpened metal with a taped handled was located after a cube frisk was conducted. The weapon was hidden inside the radiator cover. A piece of liquid stained paper was located in the second cube. The stained paper is believed to have a liquid drug dried into it.
During a separate dorm search by staff, three weapons and one plastic bundle containing a white
substance was recovered. An ice pick type weapon was recovered from an inmate’s sock when he was frisked by staff. A sharpened piece of metal was located on the top shelf of the locker in an inmate’s cube. The third weapon recovered was a tied off piece of cloth with a bar of soap inside hidden under the inmate’s mattress.
The plastic bundle of white substance was found under the mattress in an inmate’s cube. When
inspecting the powdery substance, a staff member became overcome with dizziness and had shortness of breath. He was brought immediately to the infirmary and transported to Wyoming County Community Hospital for evaluation.
State Police and the HAZMAT Team were notified and responded to the facility. They removed the
substance from the facility and sent it to Wadsworth Lab in Albany for testing.
The inmates who had the contraband in their possession were placed in Special Housing Units
and face internal disciplinary charges.
“Unfortunately, drugs and weapons will always find their way into our state prisons despite the
best efforts of staff and technology deployed to detect it. It goes without saying, inmate’s armed
with weapons pose a serious risk for officers and other inmates every day. With the amount of
violence that exists in our prisons it is amazing that an officer hasn’t been killed by an inmate
armed with a make-shift weapon or high on some type of drug. There already has been multiple
attempts to stab officers, but thankfully no one has had life threatening injuries. That could
change any minute as conditions inside our prisons become more and more violent. Will it take
one of our members to be killed by a weapon or exposure to Fentanyl for State Legislators to
wake up and recognize what staff have to endure every single day? Instead of advocating for
inmate rights, those legislators who support them should take a hard look at what staff are
subjected to and make the necessary changes to improve their daily safety and well-being inside
the walls and fences!”-stated Kenny Gold, NYSCOPBA Western Region Vice President