The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-19
SEVERAL FATALLY WOUNDED DURING
 PRISONERS RIOT
Hundreds Take Part In Pen itentiary Outbreak During Which a Number of
 Buildings Are Fired
By AssocIated Press

Pittsburg, July IS.-Prisoners In the western penItentiary here today broke all bounds of discipline, fired four buildings and for time kept the institutions in an uproar, while prison guards deputy sheriffs and policemen. reinforced by armed ciu- zeEs, battled to put down the dis order. Six convicts were shot and two others cus in the battle Prison officials said three or four of the wounded probably would die.
 The outbreak. timed 10 start with the ringing of the first fire gong, began in the dining room where the convicts sought to detract the atten- ton of guards from the fires prison officials said. Alarms sounded from four places in the institution almost simultaneously when guards first learned the prisoners had fired the | buildings with any material avala ble. Some 500 prisoners had just taken their seats In the big dining room when one of them sent soup bowl 1 careening down one of the long tables Instantly the room was in an uproar. for at the same moment the first gong sounded an alarm from the construction shop, the linen shop, | the kitchen and the chapel.
 Riot Calls Sent
 The guards in tbe dining room tried ! to quell the outbreak, but the thoroughly madd dened prisoners pelted I them with table ware and cntlery all the time shrieking and bowling, The fire department, finding the blaze was beyond it's control. called the city firemen. while riot calls were sent in for the police.
 Meanwhile the guards in the dining room had regained, in part, their control and forced some of the men back 10 their cells. but 200 or mors rushed for the prison yard and when | faced by other guards, backed into a building and ran for the top of a | tier of cells. From this vantage 1 point they pelted the guards. now re | inforced by every available man In the prison, with bricks torn from the top of the wall Deputy sheriffs and police from every precinct in the city soon added to the fighting force | within the enclosure, and it was not | long before the prisoners had been | chased from the wall to their cells.
 
 by breaking the glass in the window $ and shrieking and bowling to the thousands of persons gathered in the streets and on the house tops nearby Within two hours the fire wa. under control but B number of build l ings had been destroyed with an eH- timated loss in excess of $50, 900. Followed Period of Discomfort John M Egan, parole officer after quiet had been restored, said the out break was the result of a period of dlscontent among the 1,135 persons confined in the institution. About 800 Of these, he said, were long tern men many of them desperate crim. inals. Recently q party of convicti was brought here from the eastern psnitentiary in Philadelphia Thes, men and women. Mir Egan said. mad, many demands which were not rec ognfzed in any penal institution, bu which. when denied, only added {, the discontent.
 First tangible evidence of unres 1 appeared two weeks ago when tw, prisoners and guard were hurt dur ing a fight in the dining room. Yes | terday one prisoner sandbagged an other while the prisoners were a drill in the enclosure, in the hope h, | said, that the guards would be con | fused and s break for liberty woul' 1 be successful The guards however | kept their heads The fires today Mr. Eagan added, were evidently o | incendiary origin.
 So many cell locks were broker | that tonight picked men from ths ! Pittsburg police are on guard in th' corridors, while the streets about the prison are heavily patrolled.