Honor Rancho ‘Choirboys’ Get a Black Eye

Considering that some were convicted murderers and rapists, the men in the Sheriff’s Inmate Management System at the Pitchess jail in Castaic were pretty strait-laced guys--until Sunday night.

Their exemplary conduct while housed in a maximum-security wing of what is formally called the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho had earned them residency in a special good-behavior dormitory, where they were granted extra television and telephone privileges.

But about 7 p.m. Sunday, the 50 or so residents of the dormitory stopped behaving like choirboys, getting into the latest in a series of jailhouse brawls that have plagued the facility for years.

The melee, whose cause was undetermined, lasted about two minutes. Four inmates were taken to the jail ward at County-USC Medical Center, where they were treated for minor injuries, Sheriff’s Sgt. Noel Lanier said.

Although the inmates are screened for up to two months before being admitted to the good-conduct dormitory, a jail-made knife and several other weapons fashioned from broomsticks were found among prisoners’ belongings, he said.

Lt. James Stevenson said the instigators of the fight will be transferred out of the dormitory, but that the other brawlers will be able to stay, with only temporary loss of some privileges.

The best feature of the brawl was that unlike the usual donnybrooks among the harder-core felons that require tear-gas and “sting” grenades to break up, it was comparatively easy to halt.

Deputies simply yelled at the inmates to stop fighting. So they did.

They “have demonstrated their ability to follow jail rules,” Lanier said.