Inmates riot at Dartmouth jail

Dozens of rioting prisonerssmashed windows and set firesat a Nova Scotia jailWednesday, causing extensive damage to the property, a provincial Justice Department spokeswoman said.

Sherri Aikenheadtold reporters at a press conference thattheincident at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouthstarted around 1:30 p.m. AT when 59 inmates in the north unit refused to return to their cells for lockdown.

The inmates smashed windows, Aikenhead said, and some usedshards of glass as weapons. Fires were set in a garbage can and in a bookshelf.

"It is considered a major disturbance," Aikenhead said when asked to describe the incident.

One inmate wastreated for smoke inhalation but there were no serious injuries, she said.

Inmates return to cells before sundown

Corrections officials brought in extra staff to quell the riot. Most of the inmates were back in their cells by 6:15 p.m., with the last holdouts giving up before sundown.

Earlier, Carla Grant, another Justice Department spokeswoman, told reporters it was unclear whether the riot was related to a lockdown at the facility Tuesday night and subsequent searches for contraband. Prisoners were supposed to remain in lockdown until Thursday morning.

Aikenhead said she could not speculate on a cause.

"All it takes is one inmate to get something like this started," she said.

Halifax Regional Police were called to the jail around 3:30 p.m. Officers were standing by outside the facility, along with firefighters and paramedics. Paul Maynard, spokesman for Emergency Health Services, said the ambulance service was asked at one point tohave 10 vehiclesreadyand to prepare for 20 to 30 patients.

Violence in November

Wednesday's incident is not the first at the facility.

In November, inmates in two rooms refused to comply with a lockdown, then proceeded to trash one of the rooms and assault another inmate, according to an account provided by an unnamed guard who wrotean email to the provincialNDP to shed light on what happened. The unnamed guard said13 guards had to be called in from home and from other parts of the facility to deal with the incident.

The unnamed guard complained that there were too few guardson at the time of the November incident.

The Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, which opened in 2001 and houses the majority of adult offenders in the province, is designed tohold 224 male and 48 female offenders in single cells, butprisoners are often placed two to a cell because of overcrowding.

BeforeWednesday's disturbance, Justice Department officials said they are working to fill a number of guard positions at the prison.