170 Prisoners Transferred After 2 Brawls : CORONA NORCO

Officials at a state prison in Norco transferred a dozen inmates to three other state facilities Wednesday night, completing their removal of 170 men in the wake of two brawls that began as a dispute over seats in a television room and escalated into what the officials described as a racial conflict.

On Jan. 20, between 30 and 40 inmates of the California Rehabilitation Center fought over seats to watch the Super Bowl game in a dormitory television room, said Lt. George Morgan, public information officer for the medium-security prison.

“That fight spread to a couple of other areas as friends rallied to support their friends,” he said.

The skirmish prompted a five-day lockdown of the 2,800-inmate prison and the transfer of 28 prisoners to close-custody facilities in the California Institution for Men at Chino.

Officials lifted the lockdown in phases through last Friday, only to face another, larger fracas the next afternoon, Morgan said. The episode was “obviously a carry-over” from the Super Bowl fighting, he said.

About 400 men filled the prison’s recreation yard, near an inmate canteen, when the fight broke out and spread to surrounding areas, Morgan said. “It followed racial lines between the blacks and the browns--the Mexicans . . . ,” he said.

“Some inmates refused to return to their housing units or to obey orders from the officers,” so guards fired a series of 10 warning shots, he said.

Sixteen prisoners suffered minor injuries, mostly cuts and bruises, during the 10-minute incident. A female guard was “struck in the back and leg by several inmates” but suffered no injury, Morgan said.

Prison officials have transferred 142 inmates to higher-security facilities in Chino and at San Quentin and Folsom prisons since the second fracas.

Saturday’s fighting also prompted another lockdown, which remained in effect at the Norco facility late Wednesday. All male inmates were confined to their housing units, and visiting, work, school and recreational activities were suspended, Morgan said.

The prisoners may leave their dormitories only for meals and to exchange laundry in closely controlled groups of up to 80 men, he said.

The California Rehabilitation Center has a long history of racial conflicts between blacks and Latinos, including an April, 1984, fight that left six men injured and an August, 1983, incident that left one man stabbed to death.

Prison employees have been working 12-hour days to provide security and support services during the current lockdown, Morgan said. Prison officials have not decided when they will lift the extraordinary security measures.