County Jail Quiet on Thanksgiving After 7 Injured in Racial Brawl

Inmates at a county jail in Castaic peacefully enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving feast Thursday, a day after seven people were injured in the latest in a series of race-related brawls.

Three inmates were hospitalized and four others were treated for minor injuries after a Wednesday night fight involving 90 black and Latino inmates at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday.

The brawl was the latest incident in 20 months of escalating race-related violence at the facility, where additional security measures were put in place last month.

The incident occurred about 7 p.m. when two inmates began fighting for an unknown reason in a dorm, Deputy Diane Hecht said. The inmates were removed from the area by deputies, but shortly afterward a larger fight erupted, Hecht said.

Deputies restored control in the dorm in five minutes, authorities said.

As with most race-related brawls, a majority of the dorm’s inmates were transferred after the incident to other facilities to reduce tensions, Hecht said.

Typically, the fights begin as small confrontations between two members of separate races and escalate into larger melees as inmates tend to side with their own group, deputies said.

On Nov. 17, 18 inmates were injured in a similar incident between about 60 blacks and Latinos, deputies said. In one week in October, there were six brawls involving more than 100 inmates.

Jail officials have blamed the incidents on crowding at the facility, which was built to house about 6,000 inmates. About 9,000 of the county’s 21,000 prisoners are housed there.