Dozens hurt in Calif. Hispanic-white prison riot
Posted on: Monday, 8 August 2005, 17:58 CDT
By Adam Tanner
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hundreds of inmates battled at San Quentin State Prison on Monday, leaving 39 injured in the latest eruption of violence between white and Hispanic inmates.
Some inmates used locks or other heavy objects in socks or caps as weapons in the fight, which prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon said appeared to start when Hispanic prisoners attacked whites at breakfast time.
Guards used pepper spray to end the 10-minute fight. Three of the injured inmates had to be taken to outside hospitals but Todd Slosek, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said none of the injuries were life-threatening.
"At about 8:40 this morning we had approximately 400 inmates participating in a riot," Crittendon said. "Thirty-nine of them we have been able to identify as needing medical treatment."
The riot occurred in a section of the prison housing about 900 inmates who have been under lockdown since Aug. 1 because of earlier fighting between whites and Hispanics, Slosek said.
"They were preparing to start moving the inmates over for breakfast," Crittendon said. "We had them segregated. The Latino inmates were going to exit and go to breakfast. During that movement, the initial reports indicate that the Latinos began to attack white inmates."
A lockdown means San Quentin temporarily barred inmates in that section of the prison from recreation in the large yard where inmates can play everything from tennis to baseball. They still have opportunities to interact such as when they are coming and going during meal times.
Prisoners throughout California often self-segregate along racial lines, sometimes into violent gangs made up of blacks, Hispanic, whites or other groups.
San Quentin was established in 1852 and is California's oldest prison. It has nearly 6,000 prisoners, including inmates condemned to die such as wife-killer Scott Peterson and notorious mass murderers.
Source: REUTERS
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