5 injured in prison riot

Associated Press

LANCASTER, Calif. – More than 300 inmates rioted at a crowded state prison Thursday, prompting a crackdown by guards using tear gas and wooden bullets, authorities said. Five inmates were seriously injured.

The fighting broke out in a recreation yard and was quelled after about 15 minutes, prison spokesman Ron Nipper said.

“The inmates started to fight and it just gained momentum,” Nipper said.

Guards used pepper spray, tear gas and wooden bullets on the prisoners before firing several warning shots with real bullets, said Margot Bach, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections. It was unclear whether any prisoners were hit. Bach said 26 homemade weapons were recovered.

No guards or staff were hurt.

Five inmates were taken to local hospitals, where they were in critical condition with deep puncture wounds, Bach said. Twelve others were treated at the prison infirmary for cuts.

The prison is in the Mojave Desert about 40 miles north of Los Angeles. It was put on lockdown Dec. 11, when a guard was beaten by four inmates, department officials said. Inmates were just starting to get some of their privileges back Thursday when the riot began.

Nipper said inmates involved in the fighting could face criminal charges.

The prison was designed to hold 2,200 prisoners but currently has more than 4,000 inmates in its minimum- and maximum-security wings. It was not immediately clear whether crowding may have contributed to the rioting, and Bach said it may take several days to determine the exact cause.

Last year, a racial brawl involving more than 120 inmates left 10 people injured. In 1999, an inmate was shot by guards during another brawl between whites and Hispanics.

Bach said race didn’t appear to be behind Thursday’s riot.

“It was multiracial. There wasn’t any group attacking any other groups specifically. They all got into it,” she said.

The 262-acre prison opened in 1993 and has more than 1,200 employees.