10 Inmates Are Injured in Pitchess Jail Fight

Ten inmates at the Peter J. Pitchess jail suffered minor injuries Tuesday in what appeared to be a racially motivated fight involving about 80 black and Latino prisoners, authorities said.

The brawl began about 11 a.m. following an argument between a Latino and a black prisoner--both unidentified--in a security dormitory, said Deputy Mark Bailey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

“It’s hard to say exactly what started the fight,” or what was said during the verbal confrontation between the two men being detained at the North County Correctional Facility, one of five such detention centers at the jail, Bailey said. But the brief fight that followed between the inmates appeared to be along racial lines, Bailey said.

The brawling was the latest in a series of such incidents between blacks and Latinos at the jail.

In the worst brawl, 140 inmates were injured last January in a fight that involved up to 1,600 prisoners, according to authorities.

On Tuesday, however, deputies were able to break up the fight in just a few minutes by ordering the men to stop, Bailey said.

The injured men suffered minor cuts and bruises that were treated at the jail hospital, Bailey said.

“No one was seriously hurt,” he said.