Racial Brawls Continue at Jail in Castaic

Brawls broke out Sunday and Monday at a Los Angeles County jail farm in Castaic, continuing a series of fights between black and Latino inmates.

Four inmates were injured in a fight that broke out Monday afternoon between 10 black and 10 Latino inmates in a maximum-security dormitory at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Hal Grant said. Ten deputies quickly ended the disturbance.

Three prisoners were treated at the jail. A fourth was treated at San Fernando Community Hospital for facial cuts, Grant said.

There have been at least 14 outbreaks of racial fighting at the Pitchess jail facility since April, the Sheriff’s Department said.

In a fight Sunday involving 40 inmates, 19 suffered minor injuries in a clash over a bag of potato chips.

One man required stitches on his face, the Sheriff’s Department reported.

Two dozen deputies ended the five-minute fracas without force when they entered the 92-man dorm in riot gear, Cmdr. Michael Nelson said.

Nelson could not say exactly how many incidents had occurred at Pitchess, but he said most of the 22 outbreaks of racial fights documented throughout the county jail system since April occurred there.

Nelson attributed the racial tension to a shift in the jail’s population from a black to a Latino dominance, and the resulting power struggle for internal control.

“It’s an ongoing problem that’s complex and going to require some time to resolve,” Nelson said. “It reflects exterior societal problems, too. Turf control is an issue in various areas of the city and county, and the same types of problems are in the state prison system.”

Sunday’s outbreak in the North Facility began about 11:30 p.m. when one inmate was negotiating the sale of a bag of potato chips to another inmate. The deal soured and the two began fighting, the Sheriff’s Department said.

Nelson said that although the initial fight did not appear to be racially motivated, 12 other fights erupted simultaneously, each between black and Latino inmates.

Inmates have access to vending machines at certain times during the day so they can buy candy or other snacks, Nelson said.

But it is not uncommon for inmates to resell snacks to each other when they are back in the dorm, he said.