DRAPER -- Both Utah state prisons remain on lockdown after a deadly fight between inmates and a spate of recent stabbings.
Prison spokesman Steve Gehrke says officials are trying to ensure conditions are safe for inmates, visitors and staff. He says everything from gang affiliations to underlying unrest is being investigated. Gehrke says the lockdowns are being re-evaluated twice a day, and could end soon or remain in effect another week.
Twenty-seven -year-old Alfonso Lopez died April 27 after an altercation with his 23-year-old cell mate, Jacob Ecker, at the Utah State Prison in Draper prison, about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City. The state prison in Gunnison in central Utah also is on lockdown.
Authorities say Lopez's death follows two other recent gang-related stabbings at the Draper prison.
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