SHERIFF ASSAILED OVER CROWDED JAILS.

Byline: Associated Press 

Sheriff Sherman Block says he's done as much as he can to thwart brawls in Los Angeles County's jails, but factors that lead to the violence, including crowding, are out of his control.

Still, two of his three challengers in the June primary say more can be done to stem the fights, which often involve hundreds of inmates armed with homemade knives.

The Pitchess Detention Center in Saugus has had more than 150 brawls between Latino and African-American inmates since 1991.

``Everybody will tell you that living in the Los Angeles County Jail is like living in hell,'' said Deveron Ratliff, an African-American parolee who served more than a year in the jail and various state prisons after an armed robbery conviction in March 1995.

``You wonder if some Mexican guy is going to stab you in the back,'' said Ratliff, 27. ``I asked a deputy, Why don't they do more to stop this? He said, `It's not your business. Stay out of it. Don't ask questions.' ''

Sheriff's Chief Lee Baca, a challenger to Block, agrees the sheriff has done about as much as he can but suggests that deputies should regularly undergo training in cultural diversity.

Training ``wouldn't be just a one-time shot with me. It would have to be on the job. You bring in a trained psychologist. You interview the fighters. Ask them why they fought. Are the brawls racial or a part of overall inmate tension?''

Block says he has done all that. And to answer Baca's last question: ``It's definitely racial tension.''

Bill Baker, a former chief under Block and now a candidate for his job, said the 73-year-old Block - beset by two bouts with cancer and kidney failure that requires dialysis - is no longer capable of running the vast department.

``He's a crisis manager,'' Baker said. ``He doesn't accomplish control by planning.''

Block's inability to ease racial tension at Pitchess East, Baker said, is ``testament to his lack of planning.''

The third challenger, Sgt. Patrick Gomez, a 17-year veteran working at the Temple City station, said he would ease crowding by opening two jail facilities that are currently closed, Biscailuz Center in East Los Angeles and the Rancho building at Pitchess, with money taken from tightening up expenses.

Gomez also suggested daily random searches of inmates for drugs and weapons and keeping Pitchess inmates busy growing produce at the 600-acre jail grounds.

``We need to be proactive not reactive,'' he said.

Block, who is seeking a fifth term, has started a program called Operation Safe Jails to combat the problem. Major brawls between inmates fell from 61 in 1996 to 25 last year, sheriff's officials said. So far this year there have been two major incidents.

``It's all about power,'' Block said. ``Some people have suggested that if we separate the system by race, we wouldn't have any problem. But we have 46 classifications of inmates. If we tried to separate it by race, we'd have to build 20 more jails in Los Angeles County.''

Block said the racial problems are caused by factors beyond his control, primarily chronic crowding. Pitchess East, designed to hold 960 inmates, holds 1,760, said the facility's commander, Capt. Bob Hoffman.

Attorney Peter Eliasberg, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, sides with Block on the crowding issue.

``You can't lay it all on the sheriff,'' Eliasberg said. Californians from the governor on down ``have the will to throw people in jail, but they don't have the will to provide money so that they can live there. There's no question in my mind . . . there's a sense of frustration.''