NATCHEZ — Repairing damage done to the Adams County Correctional Center during the prisoner riot there Sunday is largely a matter of cleanup, ACCC spokesperson Emilee Beach said Thursday.

Significant amounts of trash and debris remain visible in the prison yard at the prison, and Beach said the prison administration has not initiated a cleanup there because the cause of the riot is still being investigated.

“There was some damage to the housing units and recreation yard, but nothing that would jeopardize security,” Beach said.

“The FBI is conducting the investigation, and everything has to stay intact for evidence collection, so we haven’t actually moved anything.”

During the riot, prisoners armed themselves with makeshift weapons — including broom and mop handles — and at one point piled trash, mattresses and other flammables in the prison yard and lit it on fire.

Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield said that while his office has expressed a willingness to help with the investigation, the FBI would be the lead investigative organization into the cause and crimes of the riot that killed 24-year-old correctional officer Catlin Carithers and injured 16 other correctional facility employees.

Previously, Mayfield had said he was unsure who would be the lead agency in the investigation because the prison houses federal inmates. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office was the directing organization in the response outside the prison compound Sunday night.

“I talked with the FBI this morning, and it looks like they will be doing the investigation out there,” Mayfield said. “I have told them we are here to assist in any way with assets or manpower, and they told me we would probably meet within a day or two.”

Mayfield said he did not know if Adams County would be called to temporarily house any inmates officially charged in the matter.

“We have never really had to deal with this before, but (the Federal Bureau of Prisons) would probably have to move them to another federal prison if they felt they had to move (the inmates) from that lockup,” he said.

The sheriff said Adams County deputies are conducting routine patrols in the area of the prison, but Adams County personnel are not actively on the scene.

The prison has been on lockdown since the riot was contained.