Six U.S. prisoners are being rewarded for saving a prison officer who had suffered a suspected heart attack, BBC News reports.

Polk County Sheriff Johnny Moats said the Georgia prisoners, who all have committed minor crimes, would each have their sentences shortened by 25%.

The work crew had been cutting grass at a public cemetery when the corrections officer who was guarding them collapsed in the heat.

The six men used the guard's phone to call police and began performing CPR.

"When that happened, in my opinion, it wasn't about who is in jail and who wasn't," inmate Greg Williams told 11alive.com.

"It was about a man going down and we had to help him," he continued.

The work crew ran to the lone officer after he fell to the ground and removed his bullet-proof vest to perform CPR.

Rather than take his pistol and run off, they used his mobile phone to call for an ambulance.

Their actions come in stark contrast to two other Georgia convicts who were arraigned on Wednesday, June 21 on charges of murdering two prison guards while being transported between prisons.