Racial Brawls Continue to Rock County Jails

For the third day in a row, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday fired tear gas and rubber bullets and locked down hundreds of inmates in a race-related brawl at a county jail.

About 300 inmates, some armed with homemade knives, fought at Pitchess East Correctional Facility on Wednesday evening, sheriff’s spokesman Bruce Thomas said.

Deputies clad in helmets and padded suits rushed into the jail, spraying tear gas and hurling “sting ball” grenades, which eject plastic pellets.

Before the brawl was brought under control, 17 inmates were injured. At least one was transported to a local hospital and several were treated at the jail for stab wounds, Thomas said. He said the fight, which took place in three dorms and lasted about an hour, pitted Latinos against African Americans.

Wednesday’s violence followed two days of confrontations between Latino and African American inmates at another facility on the Pitchess compound.

Between 600 and 700 inmates brawled at the North County Correctional Facility on Monday afternoon, Assistant Sheriff Dennis Dahlman said. One man injured his neck and was taken to a hospital, and 52 other inmates were treated at the jail for minor injuries.

On Tuesday, another riot erupted at the North County jail, again pitting Latinos against blacks. Between 700 and 900 inmates were involved but none were seriously injured, officials said.

A rumor that a black inmate had killed a Latino inmate at a downtown jail could have sparked the riots, sheriff’s officials said. The rumor was false, officials said, but word quickly spread cell to cell that Latino inmates were planning revenge.

The round of disturbances “was something that was orchestrated by the Hispanic group against the blacks,” Dahlman said.

Thomas said the brawls are tough to prevent because they are racially motivated and inmates are not segregated by race in county jails.

There have been more than 150 race-related brawls at Pitchess since 1991. Latinos outnumber African American inmates by about 2 to 1. Many of the brawls are instigated by the Mexican Mafia, a prison gang trying to establish control in prisons and jails across the state, jail commanders have said.

In the past, priests, social workers, human-rights observers and others have been bused to the jails to soothe tensions after riots.

On Wednesday, sheriff officials said they weren’t sure how they were going to address the new round of race problems but said a lock-down has been placed on all four of the jails near Castaic.

“There’s no doubt that we have a heightened sense of security around here,” said Lt. Don Mauldin, a watch commander at North County Correctional Facility.

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Times staff writer Beth Shuster contributed to this story.