Oregon Public Broadcasting

Two units of the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla will stay in lockdown mode the rest of the week after a series of Friday night fights.

Prison spokeswoman Joni Aiyeku says about 50 inmates returning from a recreation yard battled in a walkway leading back to their units.

After the guards pulled apart the combatants, they sent one inmate to the hospital, two to the prison clinic and the rest to their cells

Administrators then declared the prison’s first lockdown in more than two years.

Aiyeku anticipates it will last until Friday.

Joni Aiyeku: “It allows us time to investigate an incident that’s on a large scale to find out who the offenders that are involved are and to make sure that they’re identified and the issues are addressed.”

The brawlers weren’t the only men punished. Nearly 400 offenders spent a long weekend locked up. Meals were delivered to their cells.

Aiyeku says the inmates live in a new addition that opened earlier this year.

The rest of the prison continued business as usual. About 2000 inmates live at the penitentiary.