• Login
• My Profile
• Help

Search

Products Police Products Accident Reconstruction AEDs AFIS Ammunition Antennas Apparel Badges Bags and Cases Ballistic Shields Batons Bicycles Biometrics Body Armor Books and Training Materials CAD Cameras Cargo Storage Collectibles Communications Communications Interoperability Computer Forensics Concealable Armor Consoles Correctional Armor Corrections Products Crime Scene Investigation Crisis Communications Data/Information Sharing Software Dispatch Equipment DNA Forensics Duty Boots Duty Gear Emergency Lighting Emergency Preparedness Emergency Response Emergency Response Software EOD Evidence Management Eyewear False Alarm Management Financial Services Firearm Accessories Firearms Firearms Storage Fitness Flashlights Footwear For Cops, By Cops Forensic Supplies Gas Masks GIS/Mapping Software Gloves Gun Cleaning Gun Racks Handguns Headsets Helmets Holsters In Car Video Investigation Investigation Software Jail Management K9 Police Training K9 Products Knives Laser Sights Laser Traffic Enforcement Less Lethal License Plate Readers Light Bars Medical Supplies Mics Mobile Computers Mobile Data Motorcycle Accessories and Gear Motorcycles Mounts Night Vision Outerwear P25 Radios Partitions and Barriers Patrol Cars Personal Protective Equipment Personal Shields Personal Transportation Vehicles Police Robots Power Distribution Precision Rifle Prisoner Transport Projectiles and Launchers Public Safety Software Public Venue Protection Push Bumper Radar Radio/Wireless Networks Radios Report Writing Software Restraints Riot Gear RMS Satellite Communications Scheduling Search and Rescue Secure Communications Shooting Range Equipment Shotguns Sights and Scopes Simulation Software Sirens Software Specialty Vehicles Sprays and Aerosols Storage Surveillance Tactical Apparel Tactical Armor Tactical Entry Tactical Eyewear Tactical Footwear Tactical Headsets Tactical Medical / TEMS Tactical Products Tactical Video TASER Technology Thermal Imaging Traffic Enforcement Training Training Gear Training Products Training Services Training Simulators Undercover Undergear Uniforms Vehicle Equipment Vehicle Graphics Vehicles Video Analysis Video Surveillance Weapon Lights Wire Tap Systems Wireless Communications Wireless Handsets Wireless Networking WMD Equipment

• PoliceOne Email

CERT Resources

National Institute of Corrections Action Response Survey from Response to Resistance Training Active Countermeasure Systems Enforcement Technology Group, Inc. FBI Gang Task Force More Links Submit A Listing

Featured Product Categories

Tactical Entry AEDs Weapon Lights Apparel Storage View All Categories

CERT Products

Featured Product:

Impulse™ i25 Ballistic Body Armor from ABA

CERT Article

August 09, 2005

EmailPrintTalk BackRegisterRSSWhat's This

Largest San Quentin riot since 1982 prompts prison-wide lockdown

By GARANCE BURKE
Associated Press Writer

SAN QUENTIN, Calif.- Forty-two inmates were injured Monday when a simmering dispute between two ethnic groups erupted into the largest riot at San Quentin State Prison in 23 years.

The fight broke out between white and Hispanic inmates in a medium security dormitory-style unit that houses roughly 900 prisoners, said Vernell Crittendon, the prison's public information officer.

Prison officials said as many as 80 inmates in several different buildings were involved in the tumult, which lasted six minutes. It took about 50 officers armed with batons and pepper spray to quell the fight, said Sgt. Eric Messick, a warden's administrative assistant.

Three seriously injured inmates were taken to area hospitals, authorities said.

"One inmate has a slash wound that goes from his ear all the way over to his mouth. It appears he was attacked by a razor blade attached to a toothbrush or a comb," Crittendon said.

Authorities discovered five weapons in the unit, including three soap bars stuffed into socks, a razor and a "small weapon made out of a metal tip, melted into the end of a pen," Messick said.

Authorities could not yet pinpoint what sparked the riot, though they ruled out gang or drug-related activity. An investigation was continuing.

The entire prison was put on lockdown early Monday and hundreds of bruised inmates were placed in plastic handcuffs as officers searched the unit and separated the groups.

Parts of the same unit of medium-security prisoners have been on lockdown since Aug. 2, when several small fistfights broke out between the same groups involved in Monday's riot, Messick said.

"This is an escalation of hostilities between the two groups," he said.

Crittendon said the last riot of this scale occurred in 1982, when 1,000 men rioted in the prison's upper yard.

Todd Slosek, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said he was pleased prison staff could quell the conflict without using significant force.

"We did spray a lot of pepper spray," he said.

Back to previous page