1,600 Brawl at L.A. County Jail Sites

Racially charged fights involving more than 1,600 black and Latino inmates flared briefly Thursday afternoon at Pitchess Detention Center facilities in Castaic.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said 16 inmates suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospitals for treatment.

Details on the fights remained sketchy late Thursday, and authorities said they knew of no specific event that triggered the brawls aside from long-simmering racial tensions.

The center’s east and north facilities were affected. The first fight started at 1:45 p.m. in four dormitories of the North Facility, and was broken up by deputies after 12 minutes of inmates punching, shoving and throwing mattresses at each other.

The second fight began at 3:30 p.m. in 11 dormitories of the East Facility and continued for 20 minutes.

In both brawls, deputies fired rubber bullets and pepper balls at inmates to suppress the melees.

About 1,900 maximum-security prisoners are housed at the East Facility, and roughly 1,800 medium-security inmates live in the North Facility.

Thursday’s brawls came two days after the Sheriff’s Department and budget officials unveiled six proposals for building and funding more jail facilities to reduce crowding and to eliminate the early release of thousands of inmates.

The county’s facilities, officials say, are outdated and ill-equipped to handle security for the number of dangerous inmates they house. In addition, a federal judge has ordered the county to relieve overcrowding at the downtown Men’s Central Jail.

Earlier this year, fighting swept from one county lockup to another and involved thousands of inmates. Two prisoners were killed and more than 100 were injured.