Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Visitations Halted After Racial Brawls at Pitchess Jail

Visitations have been canceled Saturday for nearly 2,000 inmates at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho following two racially motivated riots this week, officials said.

But prisoners might be allowed to see family and friends on Father’s Day if there are no more disturbances.

About 800 black and Latino inmates at the jail’s minimum-security facility fought Tuesday night over a cigarette deal, said Ed Dvorak, operations lieutenant of the facility. Between 300 and 400 inmates participated in a brawl Wednesday afternoon, apparently caused by tensions carried over from Tuesday’s fight.

The fights were among the largest in the history of the five-jail Pitchess facility. They resulted in five inmates being hospitalized, including one who sustained a broken clavicle and another who had been stabbed several times in the torso.

Dvorak said Saturday visitation has been canceled for inmates in the lower compound of the ranch facility, where both fights occurred. But Sunday is a special day.

“We realize it’s going to be a Father’s Day visit on Sunday and that’s important,” he said. “If they behave themselves they will get visits. If they don’t, we have the authority to keep them from getting visits.”

Restrictions on phone use and visits to the inmate store are also in place, Dvorak added.

Tuesday’s fight started when a Latino inmate apparently took money from a black inmate for an illegal cigarette sale, but failed to hand over the contraband, Dvorak said. He said the dispute probably sparked ongoing racial tensions, growing into a large-scale fight.

The inmates fought for about 15 minutes with mop and broom handles, socks filled with rocks and prison-made knives until 40 deputies quelled the disturbance using pepper spray, according to sheriff’s officials.

In the Wednesday fight, inmates used milk crates, tree limbs and other crude weapons, said Deputy Angie McLaughlin. There were no serious injuries, but several inmates had to be treated at the jail’s clinics for cuts and bruises, McLaughlin said.

A deputy twisted his knee trying to separate two inmates, but was not seriously injured and is back on duty, she said.

Inmates involved in the fighting have been transferred to other facilities and could face criminal charges.

The fights are the most serious since a 600-inmate brawl at the jail’s maximum-security North County Correctional Facility in early January. Dvorak said large-scale fights at the ranch facility are rare since only those arrested for relatively minor offenses are housed there.