An inmate, who would identify himself only as “Allen,” said corrections officers joined leaders in race-based gangs in fanning rumors about integrated housing. Lt. Anthony Gentile said some officers were misinformed about the policy.

Transcript

“We had been initially led to believe they were just going to go up to people’s houses and just randomly select people out and mix them up, and people were upset about that. It’s peer pressure is what’s really stopping it. Most guys you talk to, you pull them aside on a one-on-one basis, they say, ‘I don’t have a problem with these other races, but you know how the politics are in here homey.’

Some of it was paranoia on the part of the inmates, some of it, no offense sir, but some of it I saw staff deliberately spread bogus rumors because they like stirring the pot. Some of these guys should have been born with boat oars on their arms.

But you know, you got that in every group. You’ve got inmates that were doing the same thing just because they had their own agenda. Some of your more extremest factions from the different races. We’ve scarcely seen the impact from it now that it’s been actually implemented. Because changes were made ... if it had been implemented the way we were initially told by some of the staff that it was going to be ... I was not looking forward to that. But they stopped, they re-evaluated it, and again now the primary concern is finding compatibility.”

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