Brawl Leads to Lockdown at O.C. Jail
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Inmates in Orange County’s Central Men’s Jail were locked in their cells Monday for a third consecutive day, the result of a racially motivated melee involving about two dozen inmates, an Orange County sheriff’s official said.
About 1,300 inmates at the Santa Ana jail have been denied outdoor recreation, religious services, education programs and visits from family and friends because of a Friday night brawl between black and Latino inmates, said Sheriff’s Capt. Roland Chacon.
The fighting broke out after some “name-calling” in two dormitories that each housed 68 low-security inmates, Chacon said. Deputies broke up the fighting quickly and without having to use force. Twelve inmates were injured, and one was treated at a hospital for a cut on his head.
After the fight, sheriff’s officials moved several of the inmates to disciplinary cells where they will be isolated from other inmates. Some of the jail’s eight dormitories were segregated to discourage racial violence, and the entire jail was locked down. Inmates are being fed in their cells rather than in a dining hall.
{snip}
Racial violence is common among inmates at county jails and state prisons throughout the United States, Chacon said. He said deputies monitor inmates to determine whether racial violence is imminent.
“These incidents don’t happen that often, but they do happen,” Chacon said. “When we start to get word that things are brewing, we take it very seriously.”
{snip}
Email Stuart Pfeifer at stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com.
(Posted on April 22, 2008)
Comments
What happened to the good ole’ days when Whites were the majority race in the Orange County jails? Seriously though, the reason why there are so many skinheads in California is because of situations like the one described in this article.
Posted by Howard in Las Vegas at 6:50 PM on April 22
I am not here to feel sorry for the guys in prison or jail; they got themselves in there. I do though, disagree with all the do-gooders who think that you can take all these guys and mix all sorts of Latinos, whites and Blacks and expect them to sing Kumbaya together. Bad enough the violence between inmates of the same ethnicity, but when you add in the gang factor, you have the inmates running the institution. The punishment society has imposed is the incarceration. We can not allow the inmates to become our agents to punish each other. What surprised me about this article was that this was a low security facility.
Posted by at 6:55 PM on April 22
I love how our wonderful Supreme Court just wasted oodles of time to decide that NO, it is NOT cruel and unusual punishment to enforce the death penalty. Yet, they can’t be bothered to look into this issue which most certainly IS cruel and unusual punishment. Prisons need to be segregated. Not doing so causes intense suffering. Hell, you can even leave it up to the prisoners. Let them choose which facility they want to go to.
Posted by at 8:06 PM on April 22
Aliens -vs- Predators
Posted by LOGIC at 10:49 PM on April 22
Keep in mind, 6:55 PM, that low-security jail inmates are usually there pre-trial, and so are there under the legal presumption of innocence. Those still awaiting trial are not in county jails to be punished; they are merely being detained. It does neither them nor anyone else any good if they are injured in racially-motivated melees. Hint: who do you think pays for the medical care for people injured while under county custody?
Segregation of inmates means fewer of them get hurt, and makes the job of the deputies - and in prisons, the corrections officers - easier, and probably results in fewer of *them* getting hurt, as well. Where I was the deputies and later the C.O.s were a mixed group. They were split about 25/50/25 between guards who were decent people and would help a well-behaved inmate (within the rules), guards who didn’t give a rip and just considered it a job, and guards who would deliberately mess with the inmates every chance they got. There were also racial cases, but none of these wanted to help out a white inmate - for the usual political reason.
A few other things that make inmates more manageable are plenty of books - as a fellow who can sit and read something isn’t bothering anyone, outdoor recreation - even walking laps around the track, because one is out in sunlight and fresh air, acceptable food. Federal food started out pretty good, basically like military chow. We did get a shipment of frozen chicken on our loading dock marked “Not for human consumption. For zoo animals only.” I saw it firsthand, as I was smoking a cigarette on the loading dock during a break when our forklift driver brought it over. We ate it whenever it was cooked pretty well, and when it wasn’t, we threw it in the trash. Nobody got sick to my knowledge. With the federal budget being tight, I’ll bet the food isn’t as good.
Denver County tried to abolish hot food completely from the jail menu, but again, that didn’t fly.
I don’t know whether cigarettes make inmates more manageable. State institutions don’t allow them, and the feds still do. I took smoking up because I was under a lot of pre-trial stress, and because it relaxed me. When I got back into federal hands, I restarted because it was relaxing. I smoked two packs a week for 19 months, and quit when I walked out the gate. Quitting was easier than starting for me.
One thing that almost assuredly helps keep inmates peaceful is when the guards insist cells/dorms/rooms/whatever be kept clean. Living in a pigsty is just depressing, and that makes folks irritable. One of my roommates, an otherwise nice, bright guy was so messy in our two-man room that I asked to be transferred back to my old open dorm. Nobody else wanted to room with him, either. I was transferred, and we remained friends. He either lived that way on the outside, or simply never adjusted well to having such a limited space that it required lots of organization.
I could write a book about this all, and as a university-educated paleo-conservative who actually did three years, seeing things firsthand I never imagined, I have mixed feelings. I’ve been out almost five years, and long off supervision. I no longer have dreams that I am back in at night, but I still don’t know what to think about it all.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 12:17 AM on April 23
Note to Logic:
“Aliens versus Predators”—Excellent line. A classic.
It suggests a movie series about Blacks and Hispanics engaged in an epic battle on American soil . . . but what we have isn’t a movie, it’s real.
Posted by Reader-1 at 5:37 AM on April 23
These are the two largest groups of racists in the world, I say pay per view.
Posted by Lars at 9:48 AM on April 23
“Some of the jail’s eight dormitories were segregated to discourage racial violence”
Sounds like an official affirmation of the effectiveness of segregation in reducing violent crime.
Posted by W.D. at 11:19 AM on April 23
Let’s face it folks, this whole world needs to be segragated…blacks back to africa, asians back where they belong….muslims back where everyday killing each other is permisable….indians back to that hell hole….ect ect….and whites in this country mexicans….shipped back to mexico…whites only in Europe….ahhhhhh to dream of it makes me happy but in real life….it will never come to pass!!!!
Posted by lydia at 12:29 PM on April 23
The jails are going to be a lot more overcrowded once the economy really starts tanking. It’s where people without jobs will be warehoused when their unemployment runs out and they begin turning to crime to survive.
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 1:02 PM on April 23
Don’t you just love these stories about black and hispanic inmates going at it. At first the blacks wanted the latinos and hispanics because they were “people of color” that they thought they could manipulate. But things didn’t play out like the blacks wanted. The hispanics are now taking everybody’s jobs, including blacks and blacks can’t use the slavery issue with hispanics or latinos - you know like they’ve been pounding us with for the last 45 years.
I think it’s quite comical and as much as I hate this illegal immigration, the blacks are getting a dose of their own medicine.
So - let them go at each other. Who cares?
Posted by Gayle Sollenberger at 10:54 AM on April 27