SALT LAKE CITY — Three days after the Utah Department of Corrections celebrated the move of 2,464 inmates to the new state prison facility with its new "direct supervision" model and daylight-focused design, a report was filed of an assault on an officer.

According to the report, an inmate sat down behind an officer and threatened to kill him. As officers tried to escort him to his cell, the inmate began to fight, punching an Adult Probation and Parole officer in the face, then trying to knee a different officer.

That was only the beginning.

A public records request filed by KSL-TV shows at least 22 reports have been filed since the first one at the Utah State Correctional Facility between mid-July and early February. Some involved inmates throwing objects like lunch trays or tablets at officers, while others were violent attacks that required medical care at the hospital.

In one, a corrections officer was held hostage by an inmate who locked the officer in a shower after the inmate hit the officer in the head with a tablet.

One of the most recent incidents led to a lockdown of two facilities.

It's a huge increase to what officers saw at the old Draper facility, said Chad Bennion, executive director of the Utah Corrections Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 14.

"How would you like to wonder what's going to happen to you at work? If you're going to be assaulted, if you're going to come home? What are the things that could happen today?" Bennion asked. "It's a huge risk, and it's been growing since we went into the new facility at (the new prison)."

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Utah lawmakers look at ways to help corrections officers following 3 attacks in 2 weeks

The assaults of three Department of Corrections officers over the past two weeks at the new Utah State Prison has caught the attention of lawmakers.

The records request only covered physical violence and didn't include reports involving bodily fluids, like throwing urine from a cup at an officer or spitting on them. Bennion has heard of plenty of incidents like that, too.

A late October report outlines how an inmate used a toothbrush with broken razor blades attached to the end as a weapon in an attack against a sergeant, with the inmate slashing and punching the sergeant's face. It left the sergeant with wounds on his face and head and broken glasses.

According to the report, other inmates had to jump in to stop the attack. They helped the sergeant by physically shielding him and pushed the attacker away until officers could arrive.

Bennion believes the direct supervision model, paired with severe understaffing, is playing a huge role in the number of assaults. With the prison hundreds of officers short, he explained that the direct supervision model — in which an officer is stationed in an open setting with inmates — isn't working as intended.

He was hoping for more than $40 million of funding for hiring and retention this legislative session, but it's likely to be a fraction of that.

"There's some design issues with regards to the linear construction, all in line. There are a lot of blind spots and obstructions," Bennion said. "When you couple that with the staffing shortages, and that's not getting the real support from the governor's office to really get the funding to either make corrections with the facility or with regards to the staffing levels."

Parole agents from across the state and corrections officers have to fill in the understaffing gaps with mandatory overtime, Bennion explained, often working posts or shifts they aren't used to working and pulling 140 hours in a two-week span.

"There needs to be stability, both on the employee side of it for the officers, and also for the inmates," Bennion said. "Because if you've got an officer or agent who is just working a post, you're in an assignment. You don't know how that interaction with the inmate is going to go, you don't know what their behaviors are."

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Utah State Prison using short-term fixes to improve safety, but staffing still an issue

After several recent attacks on corrections officers by inmates at the Utah State Prison, administrators with the Utah Department of Corrections say they have taken steps to improve safety at the facility for their employees.

In mid-December, a parole agent from Hurricane was assigned to work an overtime shift at the new prison. The agent reported that he was punched in the back of the head, side of the face, and right eye area several times by an inmate.

According to the parole agent and another officer working alongside him, the inmate got upset because he thought the agent was laughing at him and decided to attack. After a trip to a medical facility, the agent was left to recuperate in a hotel room because he was so far from home.

"We need to solve these problems and right now if we can't get that type of funding necessary, we're probably going to see more of a deficit with people retiring and leaving because of the safety concerns," Bennion said.

Bennion has been working with state legislators and said $15 million was appropriated for officer wages, but Gov. Spencer Cox is instead recommending $4 million.

Thursday will be a huge day for the Utah Department of Corrections because Bennion said the Executive Appropriations Committee will announce how much funding the corrections department will receive in the coming year.

He said the problems won't be solved until they can hire more staff.

"Our state lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police has also been looking into these," Bennion said, of the assaults. "So, there's a lot of eyes starting to look on these things and we hope that with this attention, these things will get fixed."

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