UNREST SPREADS ON FOURTH DAY, INMATE BRAWLS EXTEND TO THIRD JAIL.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

CASTAIC - A third Castaic jail erupted in violence Wednesday as more than 450 inmates split along racial lines and battled, leaving 19 men injured, Sheriff's Department officials said.

One inmate suffered a serious head injury and was taken by ambulance to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, three others were hospitalized with less serious injuries and 15 were treated at the Pitchess Detention Center jail complex by county paramedics. No personnel were hurt.

The rioting marked the fourth day of black-versus-Latino brawling at Pitchess, which left one inmate dead and resulted in the segregation of inmates at several county jails. Wednesday's fighting was in the East Facility, the county's oldest operating lockup and one of the few jails in the county system where inmates had not been segregated.

Of those injured Wednesday, 13 were black and six were Latino. The East Facility, which has a capacity for 1,900, was housing 1,405 inmates, said sheriff's Deputy Richard Pena, a Sheriff's Department spokesman.

In what appeared to be a domino effect, the first confrontation occurred at 12:15 p.m., involving 123 inmates in one dormitory. An emergency response team from the Sheriff's Department responded, using tear gas and sting-ball ammunition to break up the fighting.

A second fight, involving 109 inmates in another dormitory, broke out at 12:55 p.m., followed by a third involving 112 inmates in another dormitory at 1:08 p.m. and a fourth at 1:20 p.m., involving 108 inmates.

Pena credited the close proximity of the response team for the short duration of the four incidents.

``When you're in jail, and some of these guys have been in and out of jail a lot, you know when something is going on,'' he said. ``We don't know if it was planned this way to spread our resources thin.''

The North Facility and the North County Correctional Facility, also on the grounds of Pitchess, had been in lockdown Wednesday because of earlier violence. Lockdown means inmates' movements and privileges such as phone calls are restricted.

On Tuesday, officials said they were hoping to re-integrate the jails today, a decision that was pending.

``We're trying to avoid segregating the inmates by race,'' Pena said. ``It depends on the intelligence we gather from the inmates. Whether (segregation) happens or not is a decision way above my pay scale.''

Pena said that it was a distinct possibility that communication from outside gangs might have provoked the racial conflicts. Detectives from the sheriff's Safe Jails and Safe Streets programs, specially trained in gang intervention and mediation techniques, were interviewing some of the inmates involved late Wednesday afternoon.

The incident was the fourth in a series of disturbances at the center. On Saturday, fighting among more than 2,000 black and Latino inmates broke out in the North County Correctional Facility, resulting in the death of one inmate and injuries to 46 inmates. Sunday night, 180 inmates in another NCCF dorm fought, leaving eight injured. Monday night, seven inmates in the North Facility were injured when fighting broke out in two dormitories.

Carol Rock, [phone]

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) Members of a Sheriff's Department response team enter the Pitchess detention center Wednesday on the fourth day of rioting.

David Crane/Staff Photographer