300 RIOT AT STATE PRISON 17 HURT IN FREE-FOR-ALL AT LANCASTER FACILITY.

Byline: Greg Botonis and Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writers

LANCASTER - More than 300 inmates of the overcrowded California State Prison here kicked, punched and stabbed each other in a riot that injured at least 17 before guards quelled it with tear gas, pepper spray and gunfire.

Officials offered no clear explanation for the outbreak of violence that occurred on the first day inmates were allowed out of their cells after a correctional officer was attacked more than a week ago.

Three inmates of the prison in Lancaster were critically injured with stab wounds. They were flown to hospitals by helicopter after the brawl, while up to five others were taken by ambulances to Antelope Valley area hospitals. A dozen others were treated at the prison infirmary.

No guards were reported injured.

``There doesn't seem to be a racial component,'' Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Heimerich said. ``It just seems to be a general brawl.''

The fight occurred in the B facility's exercise yard, which includes a grassy area, basketball courts, a soccer field and monkey bars, prison spokesman Ron Nipper said. The B facility's 800 inmates had been restricted to their cells since Dec. 11 after four inmates attacked a correctional officer, officials said. The officer was not seriously injured.

About 10:40 a.m. Thursday in the exercise yard, officials said, 15 or more white inmates began fighting among themselves. After they were stopped, 15 or so African-American inmates began fighting, and that escalated into a free-for-all, officials said.

Immediately after the fighting started, inmates in the other three maximum-security sections and the minimum security barracks were locked into their quarters. The prison has about 4,000 inmates.

Correctional officers ordered the B yard inmates to lie on the ground, then sprayed them with pepper spray and tear gas and fired wooden blocks to get them to stop fighting, officials said. Three rifle shots were fired but no inmates were hit, officials said.

The brawl was stopped in three or four minutes, officials said, although small groups of inmates would stand up and resume fighting on and off for an additional 10 or 15 minutes as the inmates lay in the exercise yard.

Officials said they found numerous homemade weapons.

``We're trying to get a count and an inventory of the weapons involved,'' Heimerich said.

Prison inmates commonly fashion stabbing and slashing weapons out of toothbrushes and shaving razors, and make clubs by placing batteries or a bar of soap into a stocking, officials said.

Although fights are common at all state prisons, officials say this was one of the worst they had seen. It was unusual because it did not seem to be racially motivated, they said.

``Fistfights between inmates are a daily occurrence,'' Heimerich said. ``This was unusual for the number of inmates involved and because it didn't seem to have a racial component.''

The inmates involved in the riot might be transferred to other prisons.

``There's a lot involved when there's a riot,'' said prison spokesman Ron Nipper. ``Many of these inmates will have to be sent to other prisons and new ones brought in because they can't live here together.''

In July 2000 at the Lancaster prison, some 200 white and Latino inmates engaged in a brawl that left one inmate with a broken jaw.

In June 1999, an inmate was shot in the shoulder by a correctional officer during a fight among about 50 white and Latino inmates. An inmate was stabbed during that brawl.

After an August 1998 brawl among 50 inmates, a Lancaster correctional officer was awarded the Department of Corrections' highest honor for rescuing another officer knocked down by a blow to the face with a broom handle.

In May 1994, one inmate was shot in the shoulder and another hit by a ricocheting bullet during a fight in the segregation unit among six Latino and African-American inmates.

The Lancaster prison houses more than 4,000 inmates, 85 percent above capacity, officials said.

CAPTION(S):

photo, map

Photo:

Sheriff's deputies ready an injured inmate for a helicopter flight to a hospital after Thursday's riot at the Lancaster prison.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News

Map:

California State Prison-Los Angeles County

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