Melee Injures 5 Prisoners at Pitchess Honor Rancho

Five prisoners were slightly injured Wednesday in the maximum-security section of a Los Angeles County jail in Castaic during a fight that apparently was racially motivated, authorities said.

About 20 to 30 inmates fought, some with broomsticks and two with home-made knives, at about 4 p.m. at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho, sheriff’s spokesmen said.

Deputies quickly broke up the fight, and the 115 inmates in the dormitory where the fight occurred were taken to County Jail downtown, where they could be more easily controlled, Deputy Bob Stoneman said.

Three of the injured men were taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and two were treated at the jail’s infirmary, Stoneman said. The five suffered cuts, bruises and puncture wounds, he said.

The melee appeared to have been related to a fight that broke out earlier in the day, and investigators believe race was a factor in the disturbances, Stoneman said.

In April, an estimated 45 of 130 inmates kept in a dormitory for prisoners awaiting sentencing were involved in a fight that apparently began when one prisoner stabbed another with the metal cylinder from a paint roller.

That fight, which also escalated along racial lines, caused several injuries, and 23 inmates were transferred downtown.

The prison houses about 5,000 inmates.