For more than a year, the union representing Pennsylvania corrections officers has called on the state to hire more prison guards.

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Ron Martin's Report

Without them, it is warning of another prison riot like the one at Camp Hill State Prison 15 years ago.

News 8 went inside the walls of Camp Hill to investigate the state of the prison.

Anytime you're running a correctional institution, you can never say that a riot would never happen. But it was apparent to News 8 that a lot has changed inside the Camp Hill State Prison since the riots in 1989.

The inmate population has jumped from 2,600 to more than 3,400 today. Then again, security is much improved.

Since the riots, the state has spent $70 million on new cellblocks and improved security fencing, and high-tech monitoring equipment.

"What I can say is the conditions we have in our system today are nowhere near the kind of conditions we faced back in 1989," Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard said.

Yet the union representing corrections officers said the numbers show Pennsylvania prisons are still overcrowded, some even more crowded than Camp Hill was 15 years ago.

It also claims that the prisons are understaffed and that's making it dangerous for guards.

"Those improvements did nothing to address the overcrowding in the housing units. You actually increased the number of inmates in housing units and decreased the number of staff there to respond," said Roy Pinto, with the Pennsylvania Corrections Officers Association.

The union said understaffing and overcrowding are warning signs that fiery scenes like those during 1989 could be repeated.

Union members worry that it will again be the guards who will be in the greatest danger, as pictured in video from inside Camp Hill during the riots.

"They really got hammered -- the people that got caught. There was many people with broken cheekbones, eye sockets, trauma to the head," former corrections Officer Steve Black said.

No one was killed during the 1989 riots, although one of the 18 guards taken hostage was severely beaten.

By the time the rioting ended, 35 guards and staff, five inmates, a firefighter, and a state trooper were injured. Four buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged by the fires. In the end, property loss exceeded $17 million.