The Department of Corrections has reported another assault on a staff member by an inmate at the Iowa State Penitentiary. The state’s maximum security prison in Fort Madison has been placed on “lockdown.”
A news release states the employee was escorting prisoner Keith Piper when Piper “struck the staff member multiple times with a weapon.” The staff member was first taken to a hospital in Fort Madison and then transported by ambulance to University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City. There’s no word on the employee’s condition.
The 33-year-old Piper was moved to the Iowa State Penitentiary last year after he beat up a cellmate at the Newton Correctional Center. The Jasper County Sheriff’s office reported Piper punched his cellmate in the ribs, kicked him in the head, cut him with a razor, and beat the man with a padlock wrapped in a sock.
Another staff member at the Iowa State Pen was attacked by an inmate last weekend. Officials said that employee was treated and released from a hospital.