Officials Describe Efforts to Curb Jail Disturbances

Sheriff’s Department officials called before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday detailed their efforts to reduce racially motivated disturbances in the north county jails.

Assistant Sheriff Dennis Dahlman, who was joined by Chief Taylor Moorehead, told the supervisors that the Pitchess Detention Center jails in Castaic slowly are being integrated after white and African American inmates were segregated in late April. At that time, several violent disturbances, which officials described as racially motivated and led by Latinos against blacks, left one inmate in serious condition and scores of others with a range of injuries.

Speaking at the request of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, the sheriff’s officials said they are considering a $150,000, six-month pilot program with a private company to improve inmates’ self-esteem and to try to reduce violence, particularly in jails with dormitory settings.

Jail officials also are stepping up efforts to identify gang members, removing murder suspects and so-called shot-callers from the dormitories.

But that proposal drew criticism from Supervisor Gloria Molina.

“This seems like just a Band-Aid approach,” she told Dahlman. “One recommendation is to separate inmates who are more violent than the general population. Duh!”

The officials said they also are working on other measures to reduce the violence.

But in an interview later, Moorehead said the best approach would be to redesign the dorms, which he acknowledged would probably be prohibitively expensive.

“The only way to stop the violence is 9,000 individual cells and that will cost $2 billion,” Moorehead said. “We’re doing an awful lot. We’ve had some minor disturbances. [But] I’m not foolish enough to say it won’t happen again.”