3 Factors Are Blamed in Melee at Honor Rancho

A combination of overcrowding, boredom and racial tension in the maximum-security section of Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho in Castaic contributed to a brawl among about 30 inmates Wednesday that resulted in the injury of five men, authorities said.

Although none of the inmates was seriously injured, all 115 men in the dormitory were transferred to Los Angeles County Jail and other facilities to defuse the situation, Cmdr. Ed Waller of the Sheriff’s Department said.

“For something like this to happen is not so unusual when you have this overcrowding and boredom,” Waller said Thursday. “The overcrowding is definitely a factor, about half the factor.”

He said almost 1,700 inmates were being housed in maximum security the day the fights broke out. The facility was built to accommodate 888 inmates.

Maximum security inmates are totally confined and are not in a work program, authorities said. Waller said much of the inmates’ time is spent watching television or videotapes, “and they often get tired of that.”

He said the brawl, which broke out at 4 p.m. in one of the facility’s 12 dormitories, was an outgrowth of an earlier fight in the same dorm.

Ten Latino inmates jumped on a black inmate who was accused of stealing a pack of cigarettes, Waller said.

Sheriff’s deputies broke up the fight and the victim was treated for cuts and bruises, Waller said.

But tension in the dorm remained and erupted into a fight later, Waller said.

The inmates fought with crude homemade knives and broomsticks, but deputies broke up the fight “in about a minute,” Waller said. The five injured men were treated at hospitals and returned to jail.

Previous Fighting

Waller said battery charges may be filed against the instigators and some participants in the two fights.

Earlier this year, a fight broke out among 45 inmates at the facility when a white inmate stabbed a black inmate with the metal cylinder from a paint roller. The white inmate mistakenly thought the black inmate was robbing another Latino inmate, Waller said.

Several inmates were injured in the ensuing brawl, and 23 of them were taken to Los Angeles County Jail.