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.

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