Prison Riots Los Angeles County

With the temporary segregation of prisoners at a racially tense county jail ending this week, white inmates say they fear that a spate of attacks by blacks touched off by the not-guilty verdicts in the Rodney King beating case will start again. Whites represent less than 13% of the nearly 10,000 inmates housed at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho near Castaic, where the worst jail rioting in the county broke out a few hours after the not-guilty verdicts were announced.

A maximum-security area that houses 1,000 men at the California State Prison in Lancaster remains locked down as authorities try to learn the cause of a brawl there among more than 120 inmates. The violence erupted July 29 in an outdoor exercise yard when large groups of Latino and white inmates "rushed toward each other" and began fighting, Lt. Carl Carson, prison spokesman, said Tuesday.

Sixteen inmates were injured when a fight between 40 African-Americans and Latinos swelled to 110 prisoners at a Lancaster medium-security jail, sheriff's deputies said. The melee at the Mira Loma Facility began about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night and involved inmates from four of the jail's seven barracks, according to Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy Gabe Ramirez. The jail houses 650 prisoners.

A maximum-security area housing 1,000 men at the California state prison here remains locked down as authorities try to learn the cause of a brawl involving more than 120 inmates. The violence erupted July 29 on an outdoor exercise yard when large groups of Latino and white inmates rushed toward each other and began fighting, said state Department of Corrections Lt. Carl Carson, the prison's spokesman.

Two disturbances, at least one of them race-related, broke out Sunday at a Los Angeles County jail in Castaic, leaving a total of 37 inmates injured in the latest of five melees at the complex this summer. In the latest outbreak, which started about 6 p.m. Sunday, about 500 inmates went on a rampage after deputies tried to break up a fight between a black inmate and a Latino inmate outside a dormitory in a medium-security section at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho.

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials met with academics, clergymen and human relations experts Tuesday morning to discuss ways to stem the recent rash of racial violence in county jails, particularly at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho.

Nine federal detainees suffered minor injuries Friday after deputies used sting balls and pepper spray to quell a five-hour protest at the Mira Loma Detention Center. Up to 150 immigrant prisoners, frustrated with lengthy delays in court hearings, joined the demonstrations that began about noon, said Leonard Kovensky, assistant district director for detention and exportation for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Increased supervision. More Mexican food. Better vocational training. A sweat lodge for inmates to purify themselves. These were some of the ideas proposed Monday at a community meeting held to address the racial tensions and ongoing violence at the sprawling Pitchess Detention Center near Castaic. It was the first event of its kind, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, and it represented a new approach to solving problems behind bars.

More Mexican food, a sweat lodge and better vocational training were among the ideas proposed Monday at a community meeting to address racial tension and violence at the Pitchess Detention Center near Castaic. It was the first event of its kind, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, and it represented a new approach to solving problems behind bars.

More than 100 Latino inmates at Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic raised havoc again when authorities tried to re-integrate them with black inmates after two weeks of living in racially segregated dorms. Inmates on Monday night rammed steel bunk beds into walls, hurled milk cartons and rotten fruit at jail guards and barricaded themselves behind overturned beds when guards came to take them to an integrated dorm, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Gary Sinclair.

After weeks of being kept apart in segregated buildings, black and Latino inmates at the Pitchess Detention Center are again sharing dormitory space--and again brawling. More than 20 men were hurt, two seriously, in a surge of well-coordinated attacks July 8 and 9 at the Castaic facility. The first set of fights was incited by African American inmates who previously had been unable to avenge the beatings they took as a group in April, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Cmdr. Steve Day.

Increased supervision. More Mexican food. Better vocational training. A sweat lodge for inmates to purify themselves. These were some of the ideas proposed Monday at a community meeting held to address the racial tensions and ongoing violence at the sprawling Pitchess Detention Center near Castaic. It was the first event of its kind, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, and it represented a new approach to solving problems behind bars.

More Mexican food, a sweat lodge and better vocational training were among the ideas proposed Monday at a community meeting to address racial tension and violence at the Pitchess Detention Center near Castaic. It was the first event of its kind, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, and it represented a new approach to solving problems behind bars.

Black inmates at the Pitchess Detention Center are suing the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, claiming jail officials violated their civil rights by allowing race riots to continue year after year. According to the class-action suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, sheriff's deputies subjected black inmates to life-threatening situations by not ensuring the dorms at Pitchess were racially balanced and failing to search for weapons.

More than 100 Latino inmates at Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic raised havoc again when authorities tried to re-integrate them with black inmates after two weeks of living in racially segregated dorms. Inmates on Monday night rammed steel bunk beds into walls, hurled milk cartons and rotten fruit at jail guards and barricaded themselves behind overturned beds when guards came to take them to an integrated dorm, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Gary Sinclair.

Six men have been charged in the severe beating of an inmate during last week's racially charged riots at the Pitchess Detention Center near Castaic, the district attorney's office announced Wednesday. In the first criminal charges to arise from three days of chaos that left more than 80 inmates injured, authorities said the six Latino inmates attacked a 21-year-old black prisoner April 26, slamming his head into a concrete floor and cracking his skull.

A racial brawl involving 129 inmates at the Pitchess Detention Center on Tuesday resulted in 15 minor injuries, according to authorities. The fight between African Americans and Latinos broke out at about 2:45 p.m. at the East Facility dormitory, said Deputy Bob Killeen, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. Among the weapons used during the fight, which lasted only a few minutes, according to Killeen, were broomsticks.

A total of 28 inmates were injured in two separate incidents at the Pitchess jail this week in what Los Angeles County sheriff's officials are calling two "major disturbances." Custody Division Chief Barry S. King characterized both disturbances--one Tuesday afternoon and the other Sunday night--as brawls involving African American and Latino inmates that "quickly broke down along racial lines." The institution has been plagued by a series of hundreds of black-Latino fights for several years.

For the third day in a row, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies on Wednesday fired tear gas and rubber bullets and locked down hundreds of inmates in a race-related brawl at a county jail. About 300 inmates, some armed with homemade knives, fought at Pitchess East Correctional Facility on Wednesday evening, sheriff's spokesman Bruce Thomas said. Deputies clad in helmets and padded suits rushed into the jail, spraying tear gas and hurling "sting ball" grenades, which eject plastic pellets.