Rioting spreads inside L.A. jails

LOS ANGELES – Nearly 450 inmates fought Wednesday in racially charged melees at Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, marking a fifth day of violence in the Los Angeles County jail system and underscoring officials’ inability to stem unrest tied to conflicts between Hispanic and black street gangs.

The toll in recent days has been high: one dead, at least 28 hospitalized and nearly 90 injured in rioting in the nation’s largest jail system. More than 1,000 inmates at Pitchess have taken part in the disturbances, throwing bunkbeds from balconies and using their fists and legs to fight each other, officials said.

The fights at the complex Wednesday injured 19 inmates, four of whom were sent to hospitals, one with a serious head injury.

And large-scale racial fighting spread Wednesday to at least one other county jail: Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles where 40 inmates battled, injuring 10 and sending four to hospitals, according to Sheriff’s Department documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. Deputies used pepper balls to break up that fight.

The unrest has festered despite lockdowns and racial segregation in large part because the system’s available beds require nearly all inmates to be housed in dormitory-style housing, officials said. With only about 1,000 single cells available in a system that houses 21,000 people, jailers said, even in times of crisis it is impossible to separate all inmates.

The facilities no longer match up with an increasingly violent inmate population, officials said.

“Now we’re in essence a mini-state prison,” said Sgt. Mark McCorkle, an aide to Custody Chief Sammy Jones. “It’s no longer the drunk drivers and the misdemeanors and the petty thieves. The type of inmate we house is typically a hard-core felon and an increased number of those have a desire to make their bones before going on to state prison, and that often breaks down to racial attacks.”