A jail lockdown was prompted yesterday, and is continuing into today, at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary in St. John’s. It came about after a confrontation between prisoners and correctional officers. “There was an incident this morning when a number of inmates would not return to their cells,” said a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice yesterday. “There was some damage done to the unit,” she said. She couldn’t yet specify how much damage was done or how many prisoners were involved, but she did say yesterday afternoon that “the situation is now under control.” The lockdown at the jail was expected to continue for at least 24 hours and events surrounding it are under investigation by the Department of Justice.
