Inmates in Los Angeles prison riots to face criminal charges News
Inmates in Los Angeles prison riots to face criminal charges

[JURIST] Sheriff's officials in Los Angeles have said they intend to pursue criminal charges against at least two dozen inmates who participated in a series of racially motivated riots [JURIST report] in early February at the North County Correctional Facility [official website]. Two people have been killed in the violence and over 100 inmates have been injured in a series of clashes attributed to racial tension between gangs.

Inmates had been segregated in an effort to quell the violence and prison officials have begun reintegrating inmates, a process which is about 85 percent complete. Sheriff Lee Baca [official website] has also indicated that most high-risk offenders have been moved from dorms at the North County facility to single and double cells at the Men's Central Jail [official website] and other facilities. In a 2005 decision, the US Supreme Court [official website] held in Johnson v. California [opinion] that state prisons cannot temporarily segregate inmates by race [JURIST report], except in the most extraordinary circumstances. Civil rights activists have agreed that the current riots meet that standard and have not protested the segregation. AP has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase…

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