For weeks, tensions have been high at the Dauphin County Prison. The tension culminated with a prison revolt on June 16 that lead to a weeklong prison lockdown.

Officials showed abc27 exclusive surveillance video from that day.

The video shows prisoners gathering just after noon. They jammed their cell doors open, and one man threw a trash can at the camera. The footage also shows men wrapping their heads - and not just to hide their identities.

"If we have an incident like that, pepper spray will be deployed," said an official from the prison. "They're trying to protect themselves from pepper spray."

There had been fights involving a handful of prisoners, but they all lost their privileges. The revolt was their idea of a "protest."

Officials said that one guard was punched and another was bitten. A few inmates also had minor injuries.

Warden Dominick DeRose said, "These are maximum security individuals. Everybody with high bail, murder charges, robbery - real aggressive crimes. The worst of the worst."

John Goshert, a Dauphin County investigator, showed abc27 more than videotape. A search of cells yielded a shank, sharpened stainless steel, and a sock filled with batteries to swing and hit people with.

Commissioner Jeff Haste agreed to show abc27 the video in part to praise his staff.

"If they had not responded as well as they did, this situation could have gotten a lot worse in short order," he said.

But he also wanted to quiet family members of prisoners who said their loved ones were being mistreated.

"It's hard sometimes for people to realize their loved one is not that good," said Haste. "That's the value of cameras - we can show people exactly how their loved ones behaved."

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