A hostage situation at the Northern State Correctional Facility ended peacefully Tuesday without injuries.
State officials said an inmate took a fellow prisoner hostage inside a cell with a makeshift weapon.
The situation at the Newport prison began at about 1:15 p.m., according to a Department of Corrections statement, and ended almost an hour later.
The inmate, wielding a sharpened piece of plastic, effectively barricaded himself and the other inmate inside their cell, Corrections facilities director Alan Cormier said Wednesday.
“He was at the door threatening to harm the other inmate if staff entered,” said Cormier.
A crisis team negotiated the offending inmate’s surrender, Cormier said. All correctional facilities in the state went on lockdown as the standoff played out, according to the news statement.
Cormier said the department is investigating a motive, and Vermont State Police are looking into a criminal case. The inmates’ identities have been withheld.
When the situation ended, the offending inmate was taken to solitary confinement while the victim visited mental health professionals, Cormier said. The two inmates will no longer share a cell.
Interim Corrections Commissioner James Baker was not immediately available for comment Wednesday afternoon.
