US locks down ALL federal prisons after two MS-13 gang members are killed in Texas

 The entire federal prison system has been placed on a nationwide lockdown after two inmates were killed and two others were injured Monday during a fight involving  gang members at a federal penitentiary in Texas.

MS-13 gang members Andrew Pineda, 34, and Guillermo Riojas, 54, were pronounced dead at a local hospital after the melee at USP Beaumont, a federal prison in Beaumont.

The lockdown at all 122 of the agency's institutions across the U.S. was prompted by fears of potential retaliation and concern violence could spread to other facilities.  

'In an abundance of caution, the Bureau of Prisons (B.O.P.) is securing our facilities as a temporary measure to ensure the good order of our institutions,' Kristie Breshears, a bureau spokeswoman, wrote in a statement to the New York Times on Monday. 'We anticipate this security measure will be short-lived.'  

Breshears added the bureau would monitor events within its facilities and adjust its operations as the situation evolved. She declined to elaborate further for safety and security reasons. 

Nationwide lockdowns are relatively rare but have been instituted three times in the past two years. The federal Bureau of Prisons implemented the measure after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and shortly before the inauguration of President Joe Biden later that month.

It also locked down the system in April 2020 as coronavirus cases began skyrocketing in prisons nationwide. 

Monday's brawl began around 11:30 a.m., where guards observed multiple inmates fighting, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

The fatal clash involved members of the violent MS-13 street gang, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Riojas was serving a 38-year sentence for carjacking and interfering with interstate commerce. 

Pineda had been sentenced to a term of more than six years on a racketeering charge and had been held at the prison since last February. 

The federal prison system has been placed on a nationwide lockdown after two inmates were killed and two others were injured Monday during a gang altercation at  USP Beaumont (pictured), a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas 

Both men had been involved in previous clashes behind bars, court records show.

 Riojas was involved in stabbings at a federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania in 1996 and a federal penitentiary in Colorado in 2007.

Pineda was described in court documents as a member of the prison gang known as the Mexican Mafia. While an inmate in a Los Angeles County jail in 2015, Pineda carried out orders to assault inmates who disrespected the gang, prosecutors said.  

Monday's attack is just the latest example of serious violence within the beleaguered federal Bureau of Prisons. 

The agency has struggled through a multitude of crises in recent years, including widespread staffing shortages, serious employee misconduct, a series of escapes and deaths.

During a nationwide lockdown, inmates are kept in their cells most of the day and visitation is canceled. Because of a spike in coronavirus cases in federal prisons, social visits at nearly every facility had already been canceled. 

There have been a number of serious security issues within the federal prison system in the last few months, including several inmate deaths and stabbings. 

Several inmates have escaped from the prison complex in Beaumont (pictured) in recent years and union officials have decried what they've described as a serious staffing crisis at the prison. On Monday, two inmates were killed and two others were injured during a gang altercation at the prison

The Justice Department announced this month that the agency's director, Michael Carvajal, was resigning from his position amid increased scrutiny over his leadership and in the wake of Associated Press reporting that uncovered widespread corruption, misconduct and other problems at the agency.

Several inmates have escaped from the prison complex in Beaumont in recent years and union officials have decried what they've described as a serious staffing crisis at the prison. 

The AP reported in June that security at the complex, which houses 1,372 male inmates, is so lax that local law enforcement officials privately joke about its seemingly 'open-door policy.'

In November 2007, two Beaumont inmates stabbed another inmate to death on the penitentiary's special housing unit after they broke free from handcuffs, shanked two correctional officers who were escorting them to their cells and stole cell keys. They were convicted and sentenced to death. 

A few months later, in February 2008, a Beaumont inmate was strangled to death in his cell by two other inmates -- one of them the co-founder of the prison gang Dead Man Incorporated.