8 Inmates Injured in Racial Brawl at Jail

Eight inmates were wounded, three of them seriously, during a huge brawl involving 400 Latino and black inmates at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho in Castaic on Sunday, authorities said.

The melee began about 6:20 p.m. after a Latino inmate assembled some friends to find a black inmate with whom he had tussled with earlier in the day, reportedly over a gambling incident, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Robert Stoneman said.

About 400 of the 1,750 inmates in the jail’s south facility divided and fought along racial lines, with the brawl spilling into the dormitories and yard areas.

Fifty-five deputies from throughout the jail were dispatched to the south facility to contain the melee--one of the larger such incidents in several months.

Deputies wearing riot gear were able to halt the fighting through verbal commands, without resorting to physical force, in about 15 to 20 minutes, Stoneman said.

Three inmates received serious injuries, including head wounds, deep cuts and a possible broken jaw, Stoneman said. They were taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, the sergeant said, adding that five other inmates with minor cuts and bruises were taken to a hospital in San Fernando.

About 200 inmates were reassigned to other facilities after the violence. It was not clear if they remained within the Pitchess jail.

The brawl occurred during a time when inmates are allowed out of their cells to use telephones or exercise, Stoneman said. It was not clear whether the Latino inmate who went searching for the black inmate with whom he had quarreled ever found him.

The facility has been plagued by racially motivated fighting between black and Latino inmates for several months, with incidents occurring on nearly a weekly basis.