The Associated Press
Posted: 08/13/2009 04:40:23 PM PDT
Updated: 08/13/2009 05:29:23 PM PDT
CHINO, Calif.—Counties around the state were trying to determine how a weekend prison riot that damaged seven housing units and displaced more than 1,100 prisoners might impact local lockups in the weeks ahead.Sheriffs from California’s 58 counties were invited to participate in a conference call Thursday to discuss the effects of the riot at the California Institution for Men in Chino, Scott Kernan, undersecretary of adult operations for the state prison system, told The Associated Press.
(AP)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It will cost taxpayers as much as $6 million to make repairs and clean up debris after a weekend prison riot damaged seven housing units and forced the transfer of more than 1,100 inmates, California’s corrections chief said Wednesday.
That figure will rise if the California Institution for Men in Chino decides to rebuild one of the units that was destroyed by fire, said Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate.
Another dormitory was damaged by fire, and many of its furnishings were destroyed in the melee that injured 175 inmates.
Cate said the state does not expect significant costs from transferring 1,155 inmates to other facilities after the racially motivated riot Saturday in San Bernardino County. Employees from the damaged prison are being sent to oversee those inmates at the other facilities, he said.
By JON GAMBRELL (AP) – 1 hour ago
VARNER, Ark. — Lawmakers retraced the steps of two convicted murders who escaped an Arkansas prison wearing guard uniforms, questioning corrections officials Monday over a perceived culture of complacency at the state’s lockups.
The legislators weaved their way past the main control room of the Cummins Unit, where a guard had waved ahead killers Calvin Adams and Jeffrey Grinder, unlocking a series of controlled doors and letting them slip past the warden’s office straight out the front doors.
Arkansas lawmakers applauded the prison system’s efforts to correct the problems exposed by the escape and other recent incidents, but called for more transparency and accountability in the way officials run the 20 prisons and manage their 15,000 inmates.
LOS ANGELES — Rioting inmates smashed and burned a large California prison on Saturday night and Sunday morning, injuring 250 prisoners and hospitalizing 55.
The 11-hour riot, at the Reception Center West at the California Institution for Men in Chino, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, broke down along racial lines, with black prison gangs fighting Latino gangs in hand-to-hand combat, the authorities said.
No prison employees were injured, no deaths were reported, and no inmates escaped, state officials said. But 10 of the 33 prisons in the state system were put on lockdown to prevent unrest from spreading. Those 10 were in the southern part of the state.
CHINO — Chino State Prison, along with other Southern California prisons, remained on lockdown Sunday in the wake of a riot Saturday night involving some 1,300 inmates.
The riot began at about 8:20 p.m. at the Reception Center West facility, according to prison spokesman Lt. Mark Hargrove.
The fighting quickly spread to six other barracks, each of which hold about 200 inmates, and lasted until around midnight.
About 80 officers responded to the riot.
Hargrove said they sprayed pepper spray, used batons and shot foam projectiles to remove inmates who had barricaded themselves inside.
More than 250 inmates suffered injuries ranging from stab wounds and slashes to head trauma, Hargrove said, mostly inflicted by “weapons of opportunity” like broken glass.