Baca released a copy of a note he said had been given to him by a Latino inmate at the North County jail after Saturday's riot. While claiming "no disrespect," it warned that "if blacks come into the dorms we will fight.... Please separate us race by race for everyone's safety."
The sheriff decided to begin separating black and Latino inmates at the North County facility after consulting with county attorneys, officials said. It was unclear how long the segregation would last.
The move could face legal problems. In February 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the California Department of Corrections must stop segregating inmates by race unless it was the only way to maintain security in the prisons.
Citing security concerns and a long history of racial violence in the nation's largest state prison system, California prison officials had at least briefly housed new inmates in cells with inmates of the same race or national heritage. Outside of their cells -- at mealtimes, on jobs and in the recreation areas -- prisoners mix without regard to race.
In its 5-3 decision, the court ruled that California's policy came dangerously close to violating the Constitution's ban on racial segregation by the government. An official with the American Civil Liberties Union said Saturday that the conditions in the Los Angeles County jails are so bad that they create tension that leads to violence.
"There isn't enough opportunity for the inmates to do productive things, and that allows for the tensions to rise," said Jody Kent, jails project coordinator for the ACLU of Southern California.
"As a result of that, fights will often break out. If there is more opportunity for the inmates to participate in productive activities, the tension will go down."
Specifically, Kent said, inmates at the jails often are not allowed to exercise as often as they should.
"It's imperative they get every opportunity to have some release from the conditions they're living in and the stress they're under on a day-to-day basis," she said.
But Baca said that racial violence in the jails "is impossible to prevent."
"They will divide on racial lines," he said. "There is a code of race. [You] are required to defend your race."
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Times staff writer Peter Y. Hong contributed to this report.
