Published: November 20, 2007 12:06 am         

Inmate attacks two prison staff members

Carlisle — An inmate has been placed in segregation after his attack on two staff members late Monday morning in the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle.

John Hawkins, 28, was being escorted back to his cell after being found guilty of a facility rule involving “the unauthorized possession of an unauthorized substance” when he attacked Sgt. Brian Edmondson, according to facility public information officer Rich Larsen.

Officer William Bedwell intervened to assist Edmondson and was dragged into the skirmish, Larsen said.

Hawkins was subdued, restrained and placed in segregation to await further internal review, while Edmondson and Bedwell were taken to Sullivan County Community Hospital for treatment. Both officers were treated and released by early afternoon, Larsen said.

“They were both banged up pretty good,” according to Larsen, who added that no weapons were used.

Hawkins is serving a 65-year sentence stemming from a Marion County murder conviction. His earliest date of release is November 2030. The altercation occurred in the maximum-security housing unit on the north side of the facility.

The Wabash Valley Correctional Facility is a maximum-security facility with 2,100 offenders.