Officials Partly Lifting Pitchess Lock-Down

Los Angeles County authorities said Friday they planned to partially lift a four-day lock-down of prisoners at the Pitchess jail after three nights of racial brawling that injured 243 inmates and four sheriff’s deputies.

After a quiet Thursday night in which no incidents were reported, authorities closed their Emergency Operations Center at the Pitchess Detention Center, the site of a series of mass fights between Latino and black prisoners for several years.

“Everything’s pretty quiet right now, so keep your fingers crossed,” said Deputy Elsa Avila, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.

Locked-down inmates are held in their cells or--as is the case for most Pitchess prisoners--dormitory barracks and are barred from mixing in exercise yards and on work crews. On any given day, thousands of male prisoners are in the jail, serving short sentences or awaiting completion of their trials or transfers to state prisons.

Authorities said the jail’s North County Correctional Facility and North Facility--where most of the brawling occurred--will remain under full lock-down until further notice but that inmates in the South and East facilities will be allowed partial movement.

Some inmates were ordered to wear only their underwear as a precaution against renewed fighting with improvised weapons.

Deputies hoped to return hot meal service to some areas, and weekend visitation privileges were to be reinstated to all inmates not involved in the violence.

Meanwhile, deputies said they are continuing to investigate information that the most recent brawls at county jails holding male prisoners had been planned. Male inmates at the downtown jail had been locked down even though no violence occurred there.

At Pitchess, from Monday to Wednesday nights, about 1,500 inmates were involved in sporadic racial fighting, said Deputy Bob Killeen. On Monday, 141 inmates were injured, nine with broken bones and puncture wounds. By Wednesday, the total had grown to 243.

Authorities said one man remains under observation for chest pains and two more are awaiting surgery for puncture wounds. Four deputies also were injured, none seriously.

Deputies used sting-ball grenades--which hurl shrapnel of hard rubber pellets meant to inflict pain without serious injury--sting rounds and pepper spray to stop the fighting, authorities said.

The 110 additional deputies brought in to quell the disturbances have been released.