37 Injured in 2 Brawls at Castaic Jail : Prisons: The racial aspects of the incidents between black and Latino inmates are downplayed. Deputies call such violence common.

Two disturbances, at least one of them race-related, broke out Sunday at a Los Angeles County jail in Castaic, leaving a total of 37 inmates injured in the latest of five melees at the complex this summer.

In the latest outbreak, which started about 6 p.m. Sunday, about 500 inmates went on a rampage after deputies tried to break up a fight between a black inmate and a Latino inmate outside a dormitory in a medium-security section at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho.

Inmates carrying broom handles and trash cans approached the deputies, who retreated to a fenced-in area where several inmates threw stones at them, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Rich Erickson said. No deputies were injured, but two inmates were hospitalized, one with a broken nose and the other with cuts, after they were attacked by other inmates, he said.

The inmates returned to their dorms about 45 minutes later after 30 to 50 deputies in riot gear were called in to quiet the disturbance, Erickson said. The inmates vandalized the facility with broom handles and trash cans and set off fire alarms as they retreated, Erickson said.

Deputies said the outbreak escalated because of a no-smoking policy that goes into effect today in all county jails.

Earlier Sunday, an argument over the use of a telephone sparked a race-related brawl that left 35 inmates injured--some stabbed with makeshift knives--and involved a total of 92 people in the maximum-security north wing of the complex. The outbreak, which began at 12:30 a.m., was quelled about an hour later by deputies in riot gear, Erickson said.

Deputies downplayed any link among the five fights, saying violent outbreaks are common in prisons.

“They’ll fight at the drop of a hat,” Erickson said. “You’re looking at hot-tempered people in a confined situation.”

In the first incident Sunday, no deputies were hurt and the injured inmates were listed in good condition. Thirty-two inmates were treated for stab wounds and cuts at County-USC Medical Center’s jail ward and later were transferred to the Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, Erickson said. Two inmates were taken to San Fernando Community Hospital and one was treated at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, all for concussions, he said.

The brawl in the prison dormitory was sparked by an incident Saturday in which a Latino inmate and a black inmate argued over telephone use, Erickson said. The six phones in the dormitory are used by inmates on a first-come, first-served basis.

“They had told the deputy that the dispute was resolved,” Erickson said. “It turns out that after a new shift of deputies came on duty, they got into a fight, which quickly escalated into a brawl.”

All 92 prisoners in the dorm--some wielding crude knives, called shanks, fashioned from toothbrushes, sharpened metal scraps or shards of shattered florescent light bulbs--joined in the conflict, he said. After the fight, deputies confiscated some of the weapons, although they declined to say how many.

“Anything that can be made into a weapon will be,” Deputy Bill Wehner said as he held up a plastic spoon for reporters on a Sunday tour of the dorm.

During the fight, about 25 black inmates sought refuge in a “sally port,” a small security area that serves as a foyer between the dormitory and the main corridor, Erickson said. Although there is about an equal number of blacks and Latinos in the dorm, 25 blacks and 10 Latinos were injured Sunday, Erickson said.

The deputies locked off the security area until reinforcements arrived and restored order.

The barracks-style dorm, which has a capacity for 96 inmates, temporarily houses men who await sentencing after being convicted of crimes. The dorm is one of 12 in the maximum-security North Facility, which houses between 1,100 and 1,200 inmates.

Two other recent race-related brawls--on June 3 and July 20--have occurred in the maximum-security North Facility, and another melee between blacks and Latinos occurred in the medium-security East Facility on June 19.

In the June 3 conflict, about 40 inmates were involved and 29 were injured. On June 19, five inmates were hospitalized after an incident that involved about 130 people. Five inmates were hospitalized in the July 20 brawl that involved about 40 inmates.

Deputies said statistics comparing the number of incidents this summer to past years were not available because of reduced staffing levels on the holiday weekend.

But Erickson downplayed racial tension as a motive for the fights. In jail conflicts, inmates commonly throw their support to members of the respective race regardless of the original grounds for the dispute, Erickson said.

“Fights break out in the jail quite a bit. It’s a high-tension area with a lot of people with criminal backgrounds who are prone to settle their disputes through violence,” Erickson said. “It’s not hard to predict.”