LA County sheriff says black and Hispanic inmates want segregation after jail riot

Tim Molloy:

About 400 inmates in Los Angeles County jails have been segregated because of weekend racial clashes that killed one inmate and injured more than 100 others, Sheriff Lee Baca said Monday.

The 21,000-inmate system was on partial lockdown Monday, and Baca said the inmates would remain segregated to keep black and Hispanic inmates from acting out on gang rivalries. He said the rioting came after years of animosity exacerbated by overcrowding, too few guards, and gang members being taken off the streets.

"This is just the largest demonstration of this kind of hostility," Baca said.

The sheriff said he learned that inmates supported segregation by speaking with black inmates injured in the fighting and from a handwritten note from a Hispanic inmate Sunday night. Baca said the inmate gave the note to a deputy, and was speaking for many inmates.

The note also said inmates had no interest in hurting deputies, Baca said.

Baca told reporters that the American Civil Liberties Union had issues with the segregation. But Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, said that was not the case and that the organization supports segregation as a short-term measure to protect inmates.

Ripston and jail officials cited a 5-3 U.S. Supreme Court decision in February 2005 that said prisons cannot use race to segregate inmates except under extraordinary circumstances. The ACLU and jail officials agreed that the riots met that standard.

"Under these conditions people need to be kept separate," Ripston said.

State prison officials have said that starting in March, they will end their use of an unwritten policy dating back a quarter century in which inmates arriving at state reception centers are bunked with inmates of the same race for 60 days, a measure taken in part to reduce the risk of racial violence.

Baca did not say how long the segregation would last, and he agreed with the ACLU that the county needs a better long-term cure for racial animosity behind bars. One possibility is a program in which former inmates encourage current inmates to get along under the teachings of Kwanzaa, Baca said.

Inmate Wayne Robert Tiznor, 45, was killed during a major brawl between blacks and Hispanics at the North County Correctional Facility Saturday, and about 200 Hispanic and black inmates also fought at the adjacent North Facility jail late Sunday. The facilities are on a 34-acre site near Castaic about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

About 100 inmates were treated for injuries, but none were life-threatening, authorities said.

Gang members on the outside "are shot-calling to the inside," urging inmates to carry out gang attacks, Baca said. Those who refuse to take part are often attacked, Baca said.

He said black inmates are in the greatest danger because Hispanics outnumber them two-to-one.

Another black-brown prison race riot in LA County

New fighting breaks out at Pitchess jail: Brawl among blacks, Latinos quelled with use of tear gas