8 Inmates Hurt in Brawl at County Jail in Castaic

In the third such incident in three days, eight inmates of a Los Angeles County jail in Castaic were injured Tuesday in a race-related brawl touched off by a dispute over a card game, authorities said.

All three fights began as disputes between individual black and Latino inmates and then escalated to brawls involving scores of inmates at the sprawling Peter J. Pitchess Honor Ranch. Two fights on Sunday left 37 inmates injured.

Deputies said the incidents were not related, saying that each brawl occurred in separate dormitories and involved different prisoners. No deputies were injured in any of the disturbances.

“It’s hard to say why this is going on,” Deputy Rich Erickson said. “Fights break out in the jail all the time. These are people who are in jail and they’re not too happy about it--the inmates are taking it out on themselves.”

Tuesday’s melee began in a medium-security dormitory about 4 p.m. when a gambling dispute between two card-playing inmates turned into a fight involving about 18 of the barrack’s 86 inmates in the South Facility jail, Erickson said. The men wielded broomsticks as weapons.

When about 15 to 20 deputies converged on the barracks, the inmates immediately stopped fighting, Erickson said.

Three inmates were treated at local hospitals, one at County USC Medical Center jail ward for a possible broken arm. The others were treated at San Fernando Hospital, one for a possible concussion and the other for cuts.

Five other inmates were treated for bruises and cuts at the jail’s infirmary, Erickson said. About 25 inmates were to be reassigned to other areas of the jail after the fights.

One of Sunday’s incidents also occurred in the South Facility at about 6 p.m., when about 500 inmates went on a rampage after deputies tried to stop a fight between a black and a Latino outside a dormitory. The inmates turned over trash cans and vandalized the facility. Two men were hospitalized.

Deputies said the jail’s new smoking ban, which took effect Monday, might have contributed to the tension that touched off the disturbance.

Earlier Sunday, an argument over use of a telephone sparked a fight that left 35 inmates injured--some stabbed with makeshift knives--and involved 92 people in the maximum security North Facility. That melee, which began at 12:30 a.m., was quelled about an hour later by deputies in riot gear.