Pitchess Honor Rancho

The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved $4.1 million in spending to house an additional 252 inmates at the Pitchess Detention Center's south facility. The Sheriff's Department plans to transfer the money from a fund usually used for such inmate services as recreation and education. Portions of the jail system have been closed for years due to budget problems. Once the 252 inmates are added, the facility will house 1,332 inmates, 202 short of its capacity.

Nearly 500 inmates fought Wednesday in racially charged melees at Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, marking a fifth day of violence in the Los Angeles County jail system and underscoring officials' inability to stop unrest tied to street conflicts between Latino and black gangs. The toll in recent days has been high: one dead, at least 28 hospitalized and nearly 90 injured in rioting in the nation's largest jail system.

The Sheriff's Department struggled for a sixth day Thursday to halt violence in the County Jail system, as 200 Latino and black inmates clashed just after officials had guided the media through the Pitchess Detention Center on a tour. Sheriff Lee Baca said officials were studying videotape of the riots in an attempt to identify the ringleaders and move them into single cells, presumably making it harder for them to instigate fights.

A 38-year-old black inmate at Los Angeles County's Men's Central Jail died Sunday afternoon after a fight with Latino inmates. He is the second inmate to die in nine days of racially motivated rioting in the county jail system. The inmate, whose name was not released, was pronounced dead at 1:50 p.m., said Sheriff's Deputy Alba Yates. The fight in which he died was one of two racially motivated brawls in the jail system Sunday.

Skirmishes between black and Latino inmates broke out again Friday night at Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, authorities said Saturday. Six inmates were slightly injured, including four who were taken to a hospital, after more than three dozen prisoners scuffled in Dormitory 622, authorities said. The disturbance began about 9:30 p.m.

Two new clashes in the Los Angeles County jail system Tuesday injured more than a dozen inmates and raised new concerns about the Sheriff's Department's effort to clamp down on the violence. The disturbances at the Pitchess Detention Center, involving more than 100 black and Latino inmates, come nearly a month after the beginning of a series of racial brawls that has left two inmates dead and more than 100 injured. The Sheriff's Department had achieved some success in reducing the violence.

Racially charged fights involving more than 1,600 black and Latino inmates flared briefly Thursday afternoon at Pitchess Detention Center facilities in Castaic. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies said 16 inmates suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospitals for treatment. Details on the fights remained sketchy late Thursday, and authorities said they knew of no specific event that triggered the brawls aside from long-simmering racial tensions.

A tip to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Friday morning led to the capture of an inmate who had escaped the day before from the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic. Felix Stiglbauer, 24, walked away from an outdoor work detail at the detention center's North Facility shortly before 7 a.m. Thursday. Stiglbauer was found shoeless and dehydrated about 7:45 a.m. Friday, walking on rural Lake Hughes Road, about three miles north of Ridge Route Road.

Three inmates who escaped from Pitchess Detention Center by walking out of an unfenced laundry warehouse were captured Wednesday morning a few miles from the Castaic jail, authorities said. The inmates were in a car that was pulled over by California Highway Patrol officers on the southbound Golden State Freeway in Santa Clarita. CHP Officer Sheri Jones said the suspects had found the keys in the vehicle. The car had not been reported stolen, authorities said.

Eleven prisoners suffered minor injuries Friday morning in a racially motivated brawl at Pitchess jail, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department said. From 75 to 100 black and Latino inmates were involved in the fight, which began at 8:45 a.m. in the south wing of the jail, according to Deputy Cruz Solis. Deputies used commands and pepper spray to quell the disturbance in less than two minutes, he said. Nine inmates were treated at the jail clinic.