2 inmates sentenced for 2012 prison riot that killed guard

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Federal prosecutors in Mississippi say two Mexican inmates have been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay a total of more than $1.3 million for their parts in a 2012 prison riot in which a guard was killed.

Jesus Beltran-Rodriguez, 38, was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years and Carlos Albert Delgado-Castaneda, 43, to seven years and eight months, according to a news release Wednesday from U.S. Attorney Gregory Davis.

He said both had been convicted of rioting in the Adams County Correctional Facility in Natchez, and Beltran-Rodriguez also had been convicted of second-degree murder.

Beltran-Rodriguez is from Leon, Guanajuato, and Beltran-Rodriguez is from Tamaulipas, according to the news release.

Guard Catlin Carithers was killed and 20 people were injured in the riot on May 20, 2012, at the privately run prison.

The prison is owned by Nashville, Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America, one of the nation’s largest private prison companies.

At the time of the riot, most of the prison’s 2,500 inmates had been convicted of returning to the U.S. after deportation for being in the country illegally.

“The cause of the riot was what the inmates perceived to be inadequate food, medical conditions and disrespectful staff members,” according to the news release.

Authorities have said damages, including destroyed fences, broken windows and stolen property, totalled $1.3 million. Other sentenced inmates have been ordered to pay that amount, too.

Prosecutors said 22 of 24 defendants have been sentenced, including one of the two considered to be the riot’s ringleaders. The remaining organizer, Juan Arredondo, is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 27.

___

Online: http://www.cca.com/facilities/adams-county-correctional-centre