Calm Is Restored After Prisoners Riot

Calm was reported restored at the San Diego County jail in Chula Vista Sunday after a riot in which 27 inmates were injured.

No law enforcement officers were injured during the 20-minute fracas, which began about 9 p.m. Saturday.

Cellblock 3-A was locked down after a major disturbance broke out between black and Latino inmates and they refused to return to their cells from a common area shared by inmates, said San Diego County Sheriff’s Capt. Charles Wood, the jail’s commander.

The lock-down, confining inmates to their cells, was lifted Sunday after an undisclosed number of inmates were transferred to other county jail facilities.

At the time of the riot, 113 inmates were being housed in the module designed to accommodate 24 people, Wood said. The jail, designed to confine 192 inmates, held 782 at the time.

The cellblock was built with 24 rooms to hold 24 people, said Sgt. Cesar Diosdado, watch commander at the facility.

Of the 113 inmates, 72 were being housed in the cells, while the others were sleeping in bunks in the day area, he said.

The Associated Press quoted Deputy Jim Cooke as saying that prisoners “tore mirrors off the wall; light fixtures were torn down; some of the bunks were disassembled and the parts were used as weapons.”

The module is not expected to be reopened until next week because of the extensive damage, Cooke said.

The cause of the riot is under investigation by the Sheriff’s Department, Cooke said.

In addition to guards at the facility, 30 sheriff’s deputies responded as well as about 15 officers from the Chula Vista Police Department.

Eighteen of the injured inmates were transported to hospitals throughout San Diego for treatment.

In the last year three other disturbances, which resulted in inmate injuries, have been reported at the facility.

Cooke said the Chula Vista facility is the worst crowded of the county jails.

A national survey released last year reported San Diego’s jails are the most heavily overcrowded of the nation’s largest detention facilities.

The study, which examined 27 jail systems with 1,000 or more inmates, found that San Diego County jails operated at 212% of capacity during 1988. The jails were operating with an average daily prisoner population of 3,702 squeezed into facilities with an official capacity of 1,743.

In 1988, San Diego voters narrowly approved a ballot measure--Proposition A--which authorized a half-cent sales tax increase for new jails and courts. Over its 10-year life, Proposition A was projected to raise $1.6 billion to relieve overcrowded facilities.

However, in March, 1989, the measure was ruled unconstitutional by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Gordon Burkhart.

Burkhart declared the sales tax illegal on the grounds that its 50.6% countywide approval at the polls fell short of the two-thirds margin mandated by Proposition 13, the landmark property tax-cutting initiative approved by statewide voters in 1978.

County administrators have said their only realistic hope of alleviating jail overcrowding lies in overturning the court ruling which struck down Proposition A.