What is the Mock Prison Riot?
The Mock Prison Riot is a law enforcement and corrections training and technology experience held every spring on the grounds of the decommissioned West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville. The purpose of the Mock Prison Riot is to provide realistic training opportunities for law enforcement and corrections practitioners from around the United States and the world.
Founded on the emergence of less lethal technologies, the Mock Prison Riot also facilitates the "marriage" of technology developers/exhibitors and end-users, utilizing the penitentiary for tactical training scenarios, technology demonstrations, workshops, a Skills Competition, and networking. End-users are able to take technologies from our showcase and deploy them throughout the prison compound in tactical training scenarios they design. This, in turn, provides optimum conditions for feedback to developers/exhibitors from end-users regarding the effectiveness of the technologies under realistic conditions. Developer/exhibitors then digest suggestions for modifications and improvements, saving time and money in the development cycle and leading to next-generation products on a global scale.
The Mock Prison Riot is a program of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Worldwide Corrections Training Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.