An Indiana State Police officer gets geared up to enter the New Castle Prison while a fire burns in the prison grounds.

Chris Bergin / The Associated Press

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More than 300 inmates from Douglas and Florence facilities are housed at a medium-security men's prison in Indiana where rioting erupted for two hours Tuesday.

Two staff members were injured in the melee, as were seven inmates.

Roughly 600 Arizona inmates are housed in the privately managed prison in New Castle and the riot began when some of those inmates defied orders from staff, officials said. (View Associated Press video coverage of the riot).

Differences in the way inmates are handled in Indiana and Arizona systems might have contributed to the riot, which involved about 500 prisoners, the state's correction chief said.

"This system is different than what they are accustomed to," said Indiana Department of Correction Commissioner J. David Donahue of the Arizona inmates. "That transition, we are sensitive to it, and I understand that may have been a concern. My gut reaction is there is a cultural difference, not in human beings, but in operational deliveries of our systems."

Thick black smoke billowed from two fires in the courtyard and some inmates armed themselves with clubs before the prison was secured.

Donahue said the situation was under control by 4:15 p.m. local time and that prison and DOC staff responded appropriately.

It was not immediately known which Arizona inmates were involved in the rioting in the facility 45 miles east of Indianapolis.

Prison guard Larry Savage said he and five other employees barricaded themselves inside a room as dozens of inmates tried to break in before a prison response team arrived about 15 minutes later.

"They were wrapped up in masks, with sticks, knives, shanks," Savage said of the inmates. "They were just flexing their muscles and they wanted to show that they could take the prison over at any time, and that's what they did."

The incident occurred a month after Arizona and Indiana contracted to house up to 1,260 Arizona inmates at the prison.

About 630 prisoners had been transferred within the past two months, adding to the 1,000 Indiana inmates housed there as of mid-March. Arizona is paying Indiana $64 per inmate per day to house the prisoners in an effort to relieve overcrowding in Arizona.

The Arizona inmates sent to Indiana are from four facilities — Douglas; Yuma; Lewis, which is located in Buckeye; and Eyman, which is located in Florence, said Bill Lamoreaux, an Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman.

Of the 630 inmates, 210 are from the Douglas facility, he said. The other facilities break down as follows: 210 from Lewis; 105 from Yuma; and 105 from Eyman.

The disturbance began as 40 inmates from the Arizona side of the prison refused to return to their living area from the cafeteria, Donahue said. The Arizona inmates took off their shirts to show staff they wouldn't comply with orders.

At the same time, about 100 Indiana inmates in their recreation area started to become disruptive, he said. A fence separates Arizona and Indiana inmates, he said. The DOC plans to interview inmates and staff members to determine exactly what happened, he said.

Donahue said there was no clash between the two groups.

"It was not a conflict between Arizona and Indiana prisoners," he said. "It didn't have any direct correlation to that issue."

Donahue said he has delayed the transfer of the other 600 Arizona inmates until authorities can reassess the condition of the prison.

Arizona Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katie Decker said at least some of the transferred inmates had complained about being moved, a step she said Arizona authorities regretted but felt was necessary because of the state's shortage of prison space.

"They're obviously resentful because they had to leave the state," she said. "It's too early to say whether that played any role in the incident or not."

However, with Indiana prisoners also involved, she said, "it looks like this is a bigger issue."

She said there hadn't been any trouble with the transferred Arizona inmates before Tuesday. Those sent to the New Castle prison were medium-security inmates, the second-lowest security classification in Arizona prisons.

"They were carefully picked before we would even put them in Indiana," Decker said. "They must have had no predisposition to violence."

Authorities did not release the condition of the two injured staff members. Neither suffered serious injuries, Donahue said, and all other prison workers were accounted for.

No inmates escaped. Seven had minor injuries, including five from tear gas that authorities used to quell the disturbance, said Trina Randall, a spokeswoman for GEO Group Inc., a Florida company that contracted last year with the state to manage the prison.

Two other inmates had minor cuts. All seven were treated at the prison, Randall said.

Randall said the incident started on the Arizona offenders' side as the newly arrived inmates complained about a lack of recreation and other programs.

GEO Group, based in Boca Raton, Fla., contracted with the DOC to assume management of the prison for an initial term of four years with three two-year extensions.