Nearly 2,000 Inmates Riot in Calif. Jail
CASTAIC, Calif. - Nearly 2,000 inmates rioted at a Southern California jail, throwing mattresses and banging heads against bunk beds, in an uproar that officials said stemmed from racial tensions. One inmate was killed. More than 100 inmates were wounded and 20 were hospitalized with serious injuries from the nearly hour-long melee on Saturday, authorities said. Smaller fights broke out for at least four hours after the main brawling ended.
Ref. https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060205/ap_on_re_us/jail_riot
This riot started from the killing of a middle aged black man convicted sex offender by rival hispanic gangs. I think the good thing about this is that there was no guards hurt or killed in this riot. With 2,000 inmates rioting, the chances of guards getting hurt is good so its a stroke of luck that none were hurt. However, many inmates were hurt in the riot, but I really have a hard time feeling sorry for both the victim and those hurt by the riot. Indeed, that is why they are in jail, they don't know how to follow the laws of the land and behave like civilized people.
Overcrowded and Going Broke: A Look Inside California's Massive Prison System
California has the most prisoners in the nation with some 160,000 people behind bars. California jails hold more than double the designed capacity and are so overcrowded that a federal court last month ordered the state to reduce the prison population by more than 40,000 in the next two years. The ruling comes as California is in the midst of a severe budget crisis. We speak with University of California, Berkeley professor Jonathan Simon, author of Governing Through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear. Ref. Source 2