Two Idaho prison inmates who are being housed in a private lockup in Texas assaulted a guard last night, prompting 10 to 15 other Idaho offenders to refuse to return to their cells, according to the GEO Group Inc., the company that operates the prison. Idaho’s Corrections Department has sent a deputy to the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas to investigate.

According to the department, a BCDC lieutenant was assaulted by two Idaho inmates around 7:30 p.m. on Monday. When the other inmates refused to return to their cells after the assault, the GEO Group called a “response team” to the prison, at which point the Idaho inmates went back to their cells. There are 373 Idaho inmates locked up at the private prison in Texas for lack of space in Idaho. The two involved in the alleged assault likely will face new criminal charges in Texas. The other inmates involved in the incident “will likely face disciplinary sanctions,” the department said in a news release.

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