Racial Brawls Erupt Among Pitchess Jail Inmates for 2nd Day

More fighting broke out among prisoners at the Pitchess jail Thursday, a day after more than 140 were injured in a series of racial brawls involving more than 1,600 inmates.

“It’s a huge problem up there,” said Los Angeles County Undersheriff Jerry Harper. “There’s no question about it, we’re going to have to continue to be on alert.”

The Pitchess Detention Center remained under lock-down as sheriff’s deputies tried to maintain peace among feuding black and Latino inmates.

The two ethnic groups have been in a power struggle inside the jail for more than five years, leading to repeated brawls, sometimes several in a week. But Wednesday’s fighting was the worst in the jail’s history, injuring 143 inmates, nine critically, during five separate battles that broke out over a six-hour period.

At least nine more inmates suffered minor to moderate injuries Thursday as six more brawls broke out.

The situation, according to Lt. Nick Berkuta, the incident commander, has been exacerbated by overcrowding due to the “three strikes” law, recent jail closures and a shortage of deputies.

More than 500 sheriff’s deputies remained on duty throughout Thursday--many held over from previous shifts. The deputies created a “visible presence” in an effort to preempt more fights, Harper said.

“I don’t think there is another solution that is readily available,” he added.

Sheriff’s deputies spent Thursday trying to determine what triggered this week’s brawls. Suspicions grew that the first one was a pre-planned assault, because it broke out simultaneously throughout much of the jail at 2 p.m.

“We’re trying to get information from informants and sources,” Berkuta said. “We’re trying our best to find out in advance what they’re up to, but they’re sly so we end up reacting to them.”

Late Thursday, deputies did not know what prompted the melee that broke out among 132 prisoners at 8 a.m. Thursday in the so-called “Super Max” maximum-security facility. The clash between two dormitories lasted only a few minutes and involved only fists and feet--unlike the fighting Wednesday, in which prisoners wielded weapons improvised from pieces of broken urinals, beds and light fixtures.

*

The jail, which houses 10,000 prisoners awaiting trial or serving sentences of less than a year, was once a jail farm, where well-behaved prisoners ran a dairy that supplied other county institutions. Over the years, it gradually has been pressed into service for more violent prisoners as other jails grew crowded, but many of the prisoners still live in military-style, 125-man dormitories instead of the cells common at other jails.

Sheriff’s officials have said in the past that the black-brown power struggle appears to have spilled over to the jail from gang wars over drugs and turf on the streets of Los Angeles.

African American prisoners, outnumbered 45% to 35% by Latinos, have suffered the bulk of the injuries, deputies said. White inmates make up roughly 17% of the population.

In the past, sheriff’s officials have had discussions with the American Civil Liberties Union, seeking its agreement not to sue the county for violating civil rights laws if the department segregated inmates by race in an effort to quell the violence.

But Berkuta said the department does not plan to employ segregation because it failed in the past. After deputies temporarily segregated a small number of inmates by race following a previous brawl, they began fighting among themselves, Berkuta said.

Harper added that the Sheriff’s Department has not pursued segregating the entire jail because the department is opposed to treating prisoners by race and because it would be difficult to keep the groups apart in showers, mess halls, buses to court and elsewhere.

Deputies generally blame the tensions on a cluster of problems, especially jail crowding.

Although the county’s eight jails were built to hold a total of 12,000 inmates, they currently house more than 18,000 men and women. At the same time, the Sheriff’s Department is down by an estimated 2,000 employees, causing understaffing on guard shifts, officials said.

The closure of three jails in recent years due to budget cuts has also greatly restricted the sheriff’s ability to separate inmates following melees. A new jail addition downtown goes unused because the Sheriff’s Department lacks funds to staff it, officials said.

And finally, officials say, because of “three strikes” legislation, the jails are overcrowded and many inmates are more violent.

“That’s why these people are off the streets and in jail,” Berkuta said. “Because they just can’t get along with society.”

Residents of nearby Castaic continue to monitor the jail for escapes, their nervousness heightened by the escape of 14 prisoners last April and three prisoners in September. A new siren system, designed to warn neighbors of escapes, was tested in November.

But Richard Massey, a member of the Castaic Town Council, said the community remains supportive of the Sheriff’s Department and is involved in ongoing discussions with the managers of the jail.

Part of that dialogue includes visits from the brass. Sheriff Sherman Block attended a Town Council meeting Wednesday night to hand out awards, although he did not mention the rioting that day.

*

Those discussions nevertheless have increased Massey’s confidence in the department, which he said was bringing in more equipment to strengthen the facility’s perimeter.

“There have always been minor ruckuses,” Massey said. “But nothing to this extent.”

The Pitchess facility appeared deserted from the outside Thursday, with no movement visible behind the double-razor chain-link fences except for patrolling deputies. But authorities described seething tensions behind the walls.

“The combatants are focused on each other,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Jeffrey B. Springs.

Tamaki is a Times staff writer and Kirka is a correspondent.