Race-Related Brawl Erupts in Castaic Jail

For the third day in a row, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies Wednesday scrambled into riot gear, fired clouds of tear gas and rubber bullets, and locked down hundreds of inmates in race-related brawling at county jails in Castaic.

About 300 inmates fought each other with fists, knees and homemade knives at the Pitchess East Correctional Facility on Wednesday evening, said sheriff’s spokesman Bruce Thomas. Deputies wearing helmets and padded suits rushed into the jail, spraying tear gas and hurling “sting ball” grenades that shoot out plastic pellets.

Before the fracas was brought under control, 17 inmates were injured. At least one was transported to a nearby 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 Latino inmates against African Americans.

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

Six to seven hundred inmates brawled at the North County Correctional Facility on Monday afternoon, said Assistant Sheriff Dennis Dahlman.

One man was taken to a hospital with a neck injury, 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 to 900 inmates were involved but none were seriously injured, officials said.

A rumor that a black inmate killed a Latino inmate at a downtown jail could have sparked the riots, sheriff’s officials said. That 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 a ratio of 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 in 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 all four Castaic jails have been put on lock-down.

Times staff writer Beth Shuster contributed to this story.