Negotiations enter fifth day in prison hostage standoff Articles / In The News Date: Jan 24, 2004 - 05:04 AM |
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We need to stand in the gap for these guards who have been taken hostage and pray for their safe return to their families. Pray as if they are your brother or sister for if they are Christians they are. Published January 23, 2004 Negotiations enter fifth day in prison hostage standoffLaw enforcement officers gather on Thursday outside the Sam Lewis Correctional Facility in Buckeye, Ariz., where a standoff continues into its fifth day. Two inmates are holding two officers hostage in a guard tower.Matt York the Associated Press By Michelle RushloAssociated Press Please click read more Please Click HERE to post a prayer Coffee and water have been sent in; at least one gas canister has been tossed out. But aware that the inmates hold the high ground and the lives of two guards, authorities are doing the only thing they can: Keep talking.The tower is a freestanding structure with two enclosed floors and a screened third floor and overlooks a yard for high-risk inmates.Because the inmates have a high position on open ground, few options exist to end the hostage situation quickly, said Paul Sutton, a criminal justice professor at San Diego State University.The inmates probably chose the best place in the prison to hole up, he said. The negotiators' best hope is that the inmates finally get hungry or otherwise desperate enough to let them in, Sutton said.Talks with the two inmates continued for a fifth day Thursday, an encouraging sign to prison officials."The longer (the talks) go on, the more the quality and quantity improve," said Ivan Bartos, a prison warden in Yuma who has been helping officials at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis in Buckeye.The hostage standoff began Sunday morning after an inmate attacked two guards and a worker. That prisoner and another inmate then got into the observation tower where the guards were stationed.Negotiators have been allowed to see the guards twice. Negotiators talked to the guards, one male and one female, as recently as Wednesday.Officials have been careful to withhold information about the inmates' demands, their identities and criminal history or their captives.Bartos said withholding the information is largely a tactical decision. Negotiators must assume that the inmates have access to broadcast media, he said.Sutton said refusing to give information may also deprive the inmates of something they likely want: media attention. |
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