A major disturbance apparently occurred over the weekend at Houston-based Cornell Companies' Flightline Correctional Center in Big Spring. According to a story on News West 9,

Questions still remain unanswered after a prisoner fire and riot on Friday night. Facility officials are being very cautious of what information is being disclosed.

Big Spring authorities rushed to the scene of a riot and fire from the Flightline Correctional Center near the Big Spring airport. The facility takes prisoners from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services, but since it is a privately owned facility the plan for police was to secure a perimeter.

"The only reason we are here, our only purpose is if spills outside of the fenced facility," Sergeant Tony Everett, with the Big Spring Police Department, said.

In total, about 15 police officers stayed outside managing traffic while Big Spring firefighters went inside.

"My understating is that may be one or two buildings were on fire," Everett said.

Several ambulances left the scene towards Scenic Mountain Medical Center where family members were advised not to disclose any information. But the mother of one of the injured employee was thankful to hear her son was doing better.

"I feel a whole lot better, I feel relieved that he is O.K. Like I said earlier, I just left it in the hands of God and he is the one who pulled me through," Inez Heins, Mother of a facility Employee, said.

NewsWest 9 also received a couple of calls from relatives who say that seven facility staff were injured and were treated for minor injuries. According to officials from the correctional center the riot never posed danger to the public. (emphasis mine)

Three things strike me about this story. First, what were the conditions issues that sparked this disturbance? Private immigrant detention facilities all over Texas have been dogged by allegations of mismanagement, negligent or absent medical and mental health care, sexual assault, and abuse. It would be very interesting to hear what was behind this incident.

Second, the fact that it's operated by a private prison corporation is shielding the facility from public view and accountability, one of the inherent problems with private prison corporations.

Third, this story should be a warning to communities that finance or allow the construction of private prisons in their communities. When private prisons have problems, the use local public resources to fix them. In this case it took 15 additional police officers outside, firefighters inside, the ambulance and hospital costs, etc. It's unclear whether Cornell is offering to reimburse the community for the costs associated with this incident. We'll keep you posted.