10 Injured in Racial Melee at State Prison in Lancaster

A maximum-security area housing 1,000 men at the California state prison here remains locked down as authorities try to learn the cause of a brawl involving more than 120 inmates.

The violence erupted July 29 on an outdoor exercise yard when large groups of Latino and white inmates rushed toward each other and began fighting, said state Department of Corrections Lt. Carl Carson, the prison’s spokesman.

Guards ordered the inmates to the ground and used pepper spray, subduing the fighting within minutes, Carson said.

Ten inmates were injured in the brawl. One man whose jaw was broken was treated at Antelope Valley Hospital and was returned to prison the same day, Carson said.

The others, including seven men who suffered scrapes and bruises, were treated at the prison. The injured included inmates from both ethnic groups, but officials could not provide a breakdown of how many were hurt from each group.

Ethnic and racial tensions are common throughout the state prison system. In February, a bloody race riot between Latino and African-American inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City ended with guards shooting prisoners, killing one. Last year, an inmate was shot by guards at the Lancaster prison, during a brawl between about 100 white and Latino inmates.

At the county level, repeated fights between Latinos and African Americans have roiled the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic throughout the spring.

“It’s a reflection of the frustration in there,” said Anita Hartman, whose husband is an inmate at the Lancaster prison. “You cannot put a bunch of people in prison and give them nothing to do. That’s how violence happens.”

Prison officials said they found six makeshift weapons after the riot was quelled in the D yard. The area has been locked down ever since, as authorities try to pin down the cause of the fight.

Inmates are not officially segregated by race in the state prison system, but they tend to stick to their own groups, said Bob Martinez, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.

“They self-segregate by race,” he said. “It’s part of survival in the facilities.”

The brawl was not previously reported to the media because it was viewed as an internal matter and not something that affected the community, as an escape would, Martinez said.