Prisons Security

Keeping a promise made only days earlier, Orange city officials have filed a lawsuit seeking to block Sheriff Brad Gates from housing maximum-security prisoners at Theo Lacy Branch Jail. The lawsuit, filed Friday in Orange County Superior Court, claims the sheriff's move last month to house maximum-security inmates at Theo Lacy violates state law, a court order and action by the Board of Supervisors.

We noted in March that electrified fences were being installed at various maximum-security prisons around California. And we strongly suggested at the time that no facility in the state needed such a fence more than the prison in Lancaster. The reasons were obvious. After 68 months during which no male maximum-security prisoner had been able to effect an escape from a California state prison, there was an escape . . . from Lancaster.

Construction of a potentially lethal electrified fence around the state prison in Lancaster, slated to begin Wednesday, has been postponed for one month, interim Warden John Ratelle said. Ratelle said the state Department of Corrections notified him that construction of the fence now is set to begin on May 23. No reason for the delay was provided, prison officials said. Because of the change, the fence will probably not be activated until the middle of next January, the warden said.

As chairman of the citizens advisory committee for the new state prison in Lancaster, James T. Lott just wrapped up a nightmarish year. Before it opened on Feb. 1, 1993, Lancaster activists fought hard to keep the $207-million prison from being built. Shortly after it opened, Warden Otis Thurman appointed Lott to the 15-member panel. Then, during the prison's first 11 months, two minimum-security and two maximum-security inmates escaped. All four were recaptured, but community anger escalated.

The word passed quietly through the jailhouse, from visitors to inmates, then on to other inmates: The Mexican Mafia wanted its minions to "get the blacks" at 3:55 p.m. as they watched the Raiders playoff game. And when the time came, Allen (Chivo) Gonzalez and his homeboys went to work. Far outnumbering the black inmates in their maximum-security dormitory at the Peter J.

The word passed quietly through the jailhouse, from visitors to inmates, then on to other inmates: The Mexican Mafia wanted its minions to "get the blacks" at exactly 3:55 p.m. as they watched the Raiders playoff game. And when the time came, Allen (Chivo) Gonzalez and his homeboys went to work. Far outnumbering the black inmates in their maximum-security dormitory at the Peter J.

The convicted murderer who escaped Oct. 5 from the new state prison here climbed over an eight-foot block wall and two 12-foot chain-link fences--all topped with coiled razor wire--while two guards were distracted, according to a report released Thursday. Eric Rene Johnson, 23, was recaptured outside a Lancaster market about five hours after his escape. His flight triggered an exhaustive review that resulted in 53 recommendations for security improvements, prison officials said.

A convicted murderer who escaped Oct. 5 from a new state prison climbed over an eight-foot block wall and two 12-foot chain-link fences--all topped with coiled razor wire--while two guards were distracted, according to a report Thursday. Prisoner Eric Rene Johnson, 23, was recaptured outside a market about five hours after his escape from the Lancaster prison. His flight triggered an exhaustive review that resulted in 53 recommendations for security improvements, prison officials said.

An electric fence being built around the state prison here--the first so-called death fence installed at a California state prison--will be switched on within a few weeks. And similar fences are planned for 18 other medium- and maximum-security state prisons, from Crescent City to Otay Mesa, over the next two years.

Inmates at a state prison at Blythe remained in general lock-down Monday after a riot left four guards and 14 prisoners injured, including a Pomona man who was in a coma after being shot through the eye when prison guards opened fire. The riot Saturday at the Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, a low-security facility with 3,300 first-time inmates, started when African-Americans and Latinos argued over the use of a basketball court, said spokesman Lt. Steve Morgan.