Pitchess Inmates Segregated by Race in Wake of Brawl

Sheriff’s Department authorities said Monday they were temporarily segregating hundreds of maximum-security inmates at the Peter J. Pitchess jail in Castaic “until things calm down” in the wake of perhaps the biggest-ever brawl there between Latino and African-American detainees.

As authorities looked into the cause of the melee, in which 600 inmates fought with knives and other weapons Sunday and 80 were injured, minor scuffles continued at the sprawling facility in northern Los Angeles County. And another fight broke out in a holding tank in a Santa Monica courthouse, the latest of dozens of racially tinged altercations that have erupted in the county jail system in recent years.

The early-morning fights at the ranch and in Santa Monica were quelled in a matter of seconds and the commander at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho said authorities countywide were on alert to make sure other flare-ups would be dealt with quickly, before they escalated into battles.

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Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Spierer, Pitchess commander, said Monday afternoon that gang warfare in Venice and other problems on the street--and in the state prison and county jail systems--might have exacerbated tensions at the ranch and caused the inmates to become combative. He said authorities were continuing their investigation into the cause of the melee, which occurred at the North County Correctional Facility, and said they remained perplexed about how to prevent problems between blacks and Latinos from escalating in the future.

Racial segregation is against Sheriff’s Department policy and will remain in effect “just until things calm down,” Spierer said. “I would doubt it will last for more than 24 hours, then we have to re-integrate them.”

He said authorities are bracing for the worst once the 500 to 700 inmates who are segregated in 14 maximum-security dormitories are reunited.

“Certainly, we are worried that the hostility will carry over when they are re-integrated,” Spierer said. “But we believe there is a greater danger in keeping them segregated.”

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Besides the constitutional problems of permanently segregating inmates along racial lines, Spierer said allowing the groups to remain separate would only cause deeply rooted social problems to fester.

“As in the past when we have segregated people racially, there is a greater possibility they will get together and plan retaliation,” Spierer said. “And all we would be doing is transferring problems from our custody areas to our other locations, and maybe even aggravating and intensifying the problem.”

Carol Sobel, senior staff counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles, agreed. She said any type of permanent segregation probably would not only be unconstitutional but virtually impossible to uphold without leading to other discrimination complaints.

“What do you do--not allow certain types of people to work out when others do?” Sobel asked. “What do you do with job assignments? I think it would be an impossible situation that would lead to a whole host of equality problems.”

However, Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU’s Southern California office, said the civil-rights group wants to examine the issue more thoroughly before taking an official position.

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The Sheriff’s Department has sent extra guards and other personnel to the jail facility east of the Golden State Freeway, and top management officials spent the day there Monday determining what other steps to take as part of a prearranged inspection. Spierer said the brawl was at least the 55th such incident at the ranch’s five jail buildings in the past year alone, and that during that time between 200 and 300 inmates have suffered injuries ranging from minor abrasions to serious wounds that required hospitalization.

Frequently, such fights have begun with a simple confrontation between two men over the use of a pay phone or a minor theft or because one inmate feels that another--often of a different race--hasn’t shown him the proper respect, authorities said. Those fights can start anywhere, including areas where inmates cannot easily be segregated, such as buses and holding cells.

“It may not actually start out racially, but it breaks out along those lines,” Spierer said.

Sheriff’s Department officials said it may have been just such a minor incident that provoked the melee Sunday. Deputies said the fighting broke out almost simultaneously at 20 separate maximum-security dormitories at 3:55 p.m. In the next half hour, more than 600 Latino and African-American inmates battled with homemade knives, broomsticks and “anything they could get their hands on,” one deputy said. Dozens of guards fired rubber bullets to break them up.

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Of the 80 injured inmates, 24 were sent to hospitals for X-rays or for treatment for stab wounds, severe cuts and head injuries. Some of those hospitalized were brought back to segregated dorms Monday, Spierer said, but others remained in the jail hospital in downtown Los Angeles and in the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Santa Clarita with serious injuries.

In all, about 500 to 700 inmates at two of the five buildings on the north campus remained segregated late Monday. The two buildings house about 1,400 inmates, with Latinos outnumbering blacks 2 to 1, Spierer said.

In recent weeks, tensions between the racial groups appear to have escalated, sheriff’s authorities have said.

Sunday’s brawl came on the heels of three fights in the previous week at the Pitchess jail. Last Friday, inmates at the jail’s north facility suffered minor injuries when 15 Latino and African-American prisoners fought, authorities said. The day before, 15 inmates were hurt when 40 men battled in a medical dorm at the north facility. And on Wednesday, five inmates were hurt when 80 inmates fought in the jail’s east facility.

After Sunday’s disturbance, at least two other fights occurred later Sunday and on Monday, although no one else was hurt, authorities said. All the incidents had racial overtones, Spierer and other county officials said.

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In one of the Monday-morning fights, 10 of 75 inmates housed at a dorm in the south facility battled with broomsticks and coffee pots, said Sheriff’s Department spokesman Robert Stoneman. Inmate fights also broke out at the jail well into the night Sunday he said.

Authorities said a four-week pilot program is set to start at the facility in the next few months aimed at teaching inmates alternative ways of dealing with stress and defusing racial tension.

“The sheriff tells us the reason they have all these (fights) is race-related and that the inmates don’t know how to deal with conflict or differences,” said Lori Howard, a deputy to County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the area where the ranch is located. “This will teach them how to deal with it without killing anyone.”

Times staff writer Chip Johnson contributed to this story.