20 Inmates Hurt in Yard Brawl at Detention Center
Twenty inmates were injured at a detention center for parole violators Sunday night, authorities said.
Prisoners working out with weights in the prison yard used barbells and weights as weapons when fighting began about 9:30 p.m.
Three critically injured inmates were taken to hospitals in Bakersfield and were listed in stable condition. The others were treated at the infirmary in the nearby Wasco State Prison. No staff members were injured.
About 50 police and Kern County sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene as did most available ambulances.
The return-to-custody facility at Shafter, one of three in Kern County, was built by a private company. The city leases the facility and operates it under a 20-year contract with the state Department of Corrections. The facilities house ex-convicts who are being locked up again for technical violations of their parole.
The melee was the second incident at the facility since it opened in January, 1991. Last September about 440 inmates staged a one-day food strike and got prison officials to agree to try to improve the meals.
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