Jail Riot Had Racial Start, Official Says

A riot that engulfed a rural Riverside County jail in flames and left 20 people injured was sparked by a handful of Latino inmates who taunted and hurled rocks at a group of black prisoners assembled outside a dormitory, a sheriff’s spokesman said Monday.

Although guards moved quickly to quell the fracas at the Banning Rehabilitation and Counseling Center on Sunday night, the fighting soon overwhelmed them, spreading through the compound and forcing authorities to retreat until reinforcements arrived.

At its peak, the riot involved hundreds of inmates who broke windows, set fires, assaulted each other with makeshift weapons and threw rocks at guards and patrol cars parked just outside the perimeter fence. The fighting broke out in the minimum-security area of the medium- and minimum-security facility. It lasted about three hours and was declared under control by midnight.

“It appears the inmates just seized an opportunity,” said Riverside Sheriff’s Lt. Kim Garthwaite. “After the initial confrontation, things just escalated.”

At first, the rampage prevented county firefighters from tackling several blazes at the 40-acre facility south of Interstate 10 near the Panoramic Highway to Idyllwild. Because of the delay, seven of the compound’s buildings--including the kitchen, a medical unit and an office containing some inmate records--were destroyed.

Fifteen inmates suffered minor injuries and smoke inhalation but none required hospitalization. Five correctional officers were injured and received treatment at the scene, mostly for cuts and sprains.

Despite reports from jittery residents who said they spotted inmates scaling walls, authorities said there were no escapes. Nonetheless, many families kept a nervous watch through the night.

“We don’t have a gun, but we have protection,” said Paulette Kile, 39, as she nodded toward a Great Dane in her back yard less than a block from the jail. The Kiles sent their five children to stay with a relative outside the area, while other families rented motel rooms or bunked with friends.

Garthwaite called the riot the worst of its kind at a Riverside County detention facility. A similar episode, also spurred by racial conflict, occurred at the jail in the mid-1970s, but there were fewer injuries and no fires during that disturbance, Garthwaite said.

“This is the worst one anyone can remember,” he said, noting that 150 sheriff’s deputies and police officers were summoned, largely to display a show of force designed to deter further fighting. “It’s a real mess out here.”

As flames lit up the sky and law enforcement officers--many clad in riot gear--streamed toward the jail, residents gathered on side streets Sunday night to watch events unfold.

With helicopters circling overhead, police dogs barking and a hot wind churning up ash and dust, the scene took on a surreal look, contrasting dramatically with the pastoral surroundings of Banning. From just outside the facility, some inmates not involved in the fighting could be seen through the towering chain-link fences, milling around recreational fields beneath huge spotlights.

“At first we heard yelling and cheering, and we thought they were playing a softball game, like they do on the weekends,” said Aaron Enriquez, 29, who lives two blocks from the jail on Hargrave Street. “Then we heard glass breaking and screaming, and all these (squad) cars started racing by.”

“It was frightening,” said Beverly Feyer, whose Wesley Street home is about 100 yards from the jail entrance. “We heard screaming, cheering, windows breaking. Then we saw the flames. You start to get a little nervous with them right in your back yard.”

Although numerous residents said they heard gunshots, officials said no weapons were used to control the riot. Garthwaite said sounds resembling gunfire may have been caused by exploding gas tanks or pressurized canisters.

The low-security center, which was built in 1929 and was for decades a camp-like facility for work crews, houses inmates serving misdemeanor sentences. It has 784 beds and had a population of 653 men and 113 women monitored by 12 civilian guards on Sunday. Officials said hundreds took part in the riot. They said it was not known if women were among the rioters.

Garthwaite said felony charges including arson, assault and inciting a riot would be filed against instigators if they could be found.

He said skirmishes between Latinos and blacks increased earlier in the year at the jail and prompted authorities to relocate about two dozen inmates. But there were no apparent problems leading up to Sunday’s riot.

“Any time you get large numbers of people in a custody situation, you get trouble,” Garthwaite said. “But because of the (population) profile of this facility, it has been mellower than many of our jails.”

Longtime residents, however, view their neighborhood as anything but mellow and say problems at the jail have increased since it was expanded two years ago to house an additional 384 people including, for the first time, medium-security inmates.

“We didn’t worry when it was like a camp, for drunks and people who don’t pay their tickets,” said Lloyd Neubauer, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1961. “But now it seems like they have a lot of hard-core guys, and the security system isn’t what it should be.”

In addition, Neubauer and others said friends who work inside the jail have told them that high-risk inmates have been housed there, a claim the Sheriff’s Department denies.

“It’s not built for that,” Capt. Jake Bowser said. “There has been talk about placing some maximum-security people there, but it has not occurred.”

On Monday, sheriff’s officials transferred about half of the jail’s inmates to other detention facilities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The move was designed to defuse tensions and ease the burden on staff as they clean up and rebuild.

Meanwhile, the lock-down declared when the riot broke out remained in effect, with inmates confined to their dormitories.