An Oklahoma State Penitentiary inmate who had armed himself with a screwdriver and took three hostages gave up late Saturday after he was apparently overpowered by a hostage staff member. Correction Department spokesman Jerry Massie said the hostage situation ended shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday, more than 12 hours after it began. ``There was some kind of a scuffle'' inside the office where inmate Robert Taylor was holding two prisoners and a staff counselor, Massie said. The four men then came walking out. ``Everyone seems to be fine,'' Massie said. ``There appears to be no serious problems.'' He said the hostages, identified as prison counselor Chuck Ryden and inmates Robert King and Allen Livingston, were taken to the prison's medical unit to be examined for injuries. ``We don't know exactly what happened yet,'' Massie said. ``It looks like the officer (Ryden) was able to overpower the inmate.'' Taylor's only weapon was apparently a screwdriver, authorities said. Linda Morgan, a public information officer at the prison, said Taylor grabbed Ryden, a correctional counselor, at about 10:20 a.m. after they went together to an office to discuss a problem. ``The other two inmates were out cleaning and painting and entered the office to get more supplies at which time they became hostages themselves,'' she said. Saturday afternoon, Taylor's request for a pitcher of tea was granted in exchange for allowing a prison doctor to examine Ryden. The counselor had his blood pressure checked and ``seemed fine,'' Ms. Morgan said. Taylor had demanded that the warden contact the governor's office and that he be allowed to have an attorney present when he presented his grievances. Ms. Morgan declined to say what the grievances were, other than to say that he originally approached the counselor with a complaint about his prison diet. Ms. Morgan said Taylor is serving a 15-year sentence for second-degree burglary and had been an inmate at the prison since 1986. Warden James Saffle had said he wouldn't meet with Taylor or contact the governor's office until the situation has ended, Ms. Morgan said. Ms. Morgan said that approximately80 prisoners live in the cells in the section of the prison where the incident took place, and ``all are in their cells.'' The McAlester penitentiary was the site of an uprising in December 1985 when inmates protesting prison conditions held seven hostages for nearly 17 hours before releasing them unharmed. The institution has been under a 23-hour-a-day lockdown since that episode, officials said.
