7 Inmates Hurt in Brawl at Castaic Jail

Seven people were injured Saturday night in a brawl between black and Latino inmates at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho in Castaic, authorities said.

About 20 inmates were involved in the 7:30 p.m. fight, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

Seven inmates from the medium-security ranch facility were treated at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital. One was seriously injured. The status of the others was not known, Deputy Angie McLaughlin said. No deputies were injured.

It was not clear what started the brawl, McLaughlin said. The fight was broken up when deputies showed up in riot gear, she said.

Inmates were segregated by race for several days in the wake of rioting after verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case, but the prisoners were re-integrated late last week, deputies said.

Nearly 1,000 inmates briefly seized control of their dormitories at the Castaic facility April 29 during a brawl between white and black prisoners. Deputies quelled the uprising with rubber bullets and tear gas. In that incident, inmates kept deputies out of the jail’s South Facility dormitories for about 30 minutes, smashing toilets and windows, authorities said.

Those incidents mark the most recent in a series of race-related brawls within the sprawling 2,800-acre jail, which houses 8,000 inmates.