Prison Riot Triggers Lockdown; 1 Injured

More than 200 inmates rioted at the state prison in Chino on Thursday night, injuring at least one prisoner and triggering an hours-long lockdown at the facility, authorities said.

The riot at the California Institution for Men broke out about 7 p.m. when inmates in the prison’s reception center began fighting, according to Todd Slosek, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections.

The cause of the riot was still under investigation, but Slosek said it appeared to be between black and Latino prisoners. The prison’s reception center is where prisoners who have recently been transferred from the county jail system are housed before they are placed in the prison’s general population.

Prison and local police officers used tear gas and pepper spray to quell the riot, then ordered the inmates to strip to their underwear and placed them in a large chain-link enclosure in the exercise yard, according to officials and television news footage.

The situation appeared to be largely under control by 10 p.m., but guards in riot gear were still working at restoring full order, officials said. “The situation is very fluid,” Slosek said. No guards were seriously injured, he said.