Inmate in critical condition after beating

Thursday, Oct. 16, 1997 | 10:23 a.m.

An inmate at the Southern Desert Correctional Center near Indian Springs was in critical condition today at University Medical Center after being severely beaten.

George Butler was in a coma this morning in UMC's trauma unit after undergoing surgery Wednesday, a nursing supervisor said. He was on a respirator, prison spokesman Howard Skolnik said.

Butler had eaten breakfast in the dining room Wednesday and had returned to his cell, Skolnik said. He was later found alone in his cell by a corrections officer. Butler was taken by helicopter to UMC.

It's the third injury this week at the prison.

While a corrections officer says the incidents are related, Skolnik says they're not. Butler was housed in Unit 5, the same unit in which inmates involved in a fight Tuesday night were housed. Skolnik said it was a fight involving 30 inmates over a debt. Nevada Division of Investigations detectives are investigating both incidents, Skolnik said today.

As for tensions in the yard, he said: "There's always tension in a prison yard. This is not a summer camp. To expect us to maintain a prison environment without any incidents of violence is unrealistic."

The prison, meantime, was locked down for the second time this week.

The lockdown will be in effect over the weekend and lifted gradually, beginning Monday with the prison industrial workers.

"We'll see what happens," he said. "If there aren't further incidents, we'll continue lifting it. If there are, we won't."