Jail Inmates Segregated to Stem Riots

Sheriff’s Department officials at the county’s Pitchess Detention Center took the unusual step Thursday of segregating inmates after three days of brawling between Latino and African American inmates.

Chaplains moved cell to cell, squads of jail guards patrolled the halls and many black inmates were removed from group dormitories and put in their own facility--something deputies have historically resisted doing, said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Day.

“It’s quiet right now but it could be the calm before the storm,” Day said. “Yesterday was total chaos.”

In the day that followed a major disturbance at the Pitchess East jail facility, authorities described a scene of frenzied violence, with inmates swinging bars of soap in socks, orange peels flying through the air, groups of Latino men attacking African Americans and a deafening noise spreading from dorm to dorm.

Most of the more than 80 men injured in the brawls Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were African American inmates, who are outnumbered 2 to 1 by Latinos in the jails, Day said.

A 21-year-old black inmate was in critical condition with a fractured skull Thursday after at least two men smashed his head into the floor during the riot Wednesday evening, Day said. Deputies have identified alleged culprits and plan to press charges of attempted murder, he added.

Jail authorities have opposed segregating inmates in the past because that enables inmates in the same group to communicate more easily and limits housing options for new prisoners. But after three race riots that each involved hundreds of inmates, “it would be foolish to do anything but segregate,” said Sheriff’s Chief Taylor Moorehead.

“It doesn’t make sense to keep these warring populations together,” said Moorehead, who is in charge of the sheriff’s custody division. He added that the segregation will be temporary.

Sheriff Lee Baca said his department believes the disturbances at the north county jails were instigated by “shot callers” from the Mexican Mafia, who allegedly are urging gang members to attack African Americans. The county inmates are attempting to make a name for themselves--a kind of “rite of passage”--before they head to state prison, Baca said.

The disturbances are continuing because “we’ve been able to prevent the ultimate death of an inmate,” Baca added.

Race-related brawling is nothing new at the four jails on the Pitchess compound, which has had more than 150 major disturbances, though no murders, since 1991.

There are racial tensions in every jail, but officials said the Pitchess facilities, with a total of about 10,000 inmates, are the most explosive because inmates are not housed in small cells but in dorms with 60 to 120 inmates to a room. Violence escalates more quickly in the dorms and is harder to quell, officials said.

In addition to tightening up security, officials Thursday also planned to soothe tensions with extended privileges. Plans were being made to allow inmates longer TV hours and larger meals.

“Full inmates are happy inmates,” Moorehead said. “We’re going to do whatever we can to calm inmates down.”