2 Lancaster Prison Guards Are Attacked One officer is injured in the assault by two cellmates.
Richard Fausset; Times Staff Writer November 5 2002 For the second time in three months, guards at the state prison in Lancaster were attacked by inmates in what appears to be an orchestrated protest against the rollback of their privileges, officials said Monday. Correctional officers Nicole Hawthorne and Henry Romo were attacked by two cellmates early Saturday while escorting prisoners to breakfast, prison spokesman Lt. Ron Nipper said. Other guards quickly broke up the fight, with one firing wooden bullets at the inmates. Hawthorne was sent to Antelope Valley Hospital with blurred vision, a hematoma to the right eye and lacerations to the head. The three-year veteran was treated and released, and was expected to fully recover. Romo was not injured. The suspects, Aaron Washington, 47, and Sharifu Washington, 30, suffered minor injuries. They were transferred to a state prison in Tehachapi. Prison officials were unsure if the two are related. Both are serving
life sentences for first-degree
Investigators suspect the cellmates may have been lashing out over the
loss of inmate privileges and a tightening of the rules at Los Angeles
County's only maximum-security lockup. In recent years, state
Nipper said Lancaster officials angered some prisoners with stricter enforcement of these and other rules after a riot in December involving 300 inmates. The crackdown is now believed to be what motivated Crips gang members to attack three Lancaster prison guards Aug. 12, Nipper said. One officer was stabbed in the head and another suffered a fractured
jaw. Prison officials responded
Nipper said the suspects in Saturday's attack may have "slipped through the cracks" in that investigation. Sharifu Washington, he said, is a member of the Crips. Aaron Washington, Nipper said, is a member of the Black Guerrilla Family, an African American prison gang that advocates the overthrow of the government, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The Lancaster facility is home to some of California's most violent felons. And like many California state prisons, it is severely overcrowded. Built in 1993 for 2,200 inmates, it now houses about 4,000. Adding to the tension is a lockdown that has been ineffect since the December riot. Prisoners lose manyprivileges in a lockdown, and are rarely allowed toleave their cells. The most recent attack, Nipper said, "is going to be abig setback for the institution. We're trying to workour way back to a normal program." Statewide, inmate assaults on prison guards andstaffers have nearly
tripled in the last decade. There
Assaults at Lancaster have risen as well. The prison had 116 assaults in 2001, state prison officials said, but that is still considerably less than the 334 assaults that year at the maximum-security lockup at Pelican Bay, which has about 1,000 fewer inmates than Lancaster. Assaults are on the rise because the three-strikes law and other get-tough measures have put away many violent offenders with little chance of release, said Russ Heimerich, spokesman for the Corrections Department. Often, he said, prisoners feel they have little to lose. "If you're in for life without parole, what can they do to you except
tack on another life sentence?"
Because inmates have so little to look forward to, advocates believe the state is wrong to curtail their privileges and impose more restrictions. Bob Driscoll, a Woodland Hills salesman whose son has been an inmate at Lancaster for three years, thinks this fosters a more dangerous atmosphere for guards. "How could it not?" Driscoll said. "They've had everything taken away from them. It's ridiculous." Lance Corcoran, a spokesman for the prison guards' union, said many
of the new regulations were a
They complained that prison weight rooms were allowing inmates to bulk up to intimidating sizes, and pornography was being waved in the faces of female officers. "It was because some people couldn't control themselves that they had
to implement these
http://www.avpress.com/n/tusty1.hts Sex sting nets 'johns,' their vehicles
LANCASTER - A prostitution sting on Sierra Highway over the weekend
interrupted sex sales and sent 30 would-be "johns" home without their vehicles.
The drivers of the impounded vehicles were either cited or arrested and five prostitutes were arrested. The operation began at 7 a.m. Thursday and ended Saturday at 10 p.m. Deeley said one of the most frequent nuisance complaints the Lancaster station gets is prostitution in an area of Sierra Highway. The two-phase operation began with arresting "known prostitutes" on Sierra Highway and replacing them with the deputy decoys. A 68-person Community Impact Team, which received one year of funding from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, consists of 60 specially trained deputies and eight members of the vice squad. The posse converged on Lancaster, where they stayed at the Desert Inn on Sierra Highway for the entire operation. "It takes a lot of cooperation to put something like this together," said Deeley, standing in front of the sheriff's station along with Deputy District Attorney David Berger, Mayor Frank Roberts and other local officials. The city of Lancaster, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, the Lancaster Station Booster Club, the Desert Inn and Town and Country Inn all played roles in the success of the weekend roundup, which reached far beyond prostitution, Deeley said. The Community Impact Team took to the streets of Lancaster, Quartz Hill and Lake Los Angeles with the Lancaster's gang unit, LAN-CAP or Lancaster Community Appreciation Project, Target Oriented Policing and the Narcotics Bureau, and relied on the cooperation of the Department of Children and Family Services, parole, probation and the district attorney's office to carry out search warrants. Often limited manpower prevents the Lancaster station from serving its own search warrants, Berger said. An unknown number of children were removed from residences containing "drugs, weapons and deplorable conditions," Deeley said. In addition to the prostitution sting, three liquor stores were busted for selling to minors. They were On-the-Go Liquor, 856 East Ave. K; AM/PM, 918 West Lancaster Blvd.; and Bob's Too, 548 West Ave. I, Deeley said. "We're in the business of cleaning up and that's what's happening," said Vice Mayor Henry Hearns. Taking advantage of the extra manpower in town, Lancaster deputies were able to do a number of warrant searches throughout the weekend. "We got a lot of extra help that freed up our resources to do the things we'd like to do on a regular basis," Berger said. Some $20,000 in cash, three pounds of methamphetamine, 12 ounces of cocaine, more than a pound of marijuana and a small amount of LSD were confiscated. In total, 44 vehicles were towed, 32 of them seized; 39 infraction citations were issued; and 81 felony arrests were made in addition to 130 misdemeanor arrests. Lancaster's Nuisance Vehicle Ordinance allows the Sheriff's Department to seize vehicles used in criminal activity, and after hearings are sought, they likely will be forfeited by their owners. Those vehicles, once all legitimate liens are paid, will be sold by the city with the profits going to the city after the Sheriff's Department's associated costs are repaid, Deeley said. With about 700 arrests having taken place in February, 211 in three days is a big deal, Deeley added. Berger said the impact of such an operation sends a clear message that Lancaster will not tolerate nuisance crimes, such as prostitution, in the community. "That's against the law … and we don't want it in Lancaster," Berger said, while also taking the opportunity to make an apparent plug for the ballot measure coming before Lancaster voters in April that, if approved, would put 10 additional deputies on the streets. "Over the last few days you've had a glimpse of what can be possible," Berger said. Called an "amazing, successful" venture by Berger, the Lancaster station is already back in line for another turn with the special team.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/7753741.htm Posted on Tue, Jan. 20, 2004 Stolen razor blades lead to Lancaster prison lockdown
LANCASTER, Calif. - More than 1,000 state prison inmates were in the second week of a partial lockdown Tuesday as guards searched for 100 razor blades stolen from the auto shop. The single-edged blades, prized as weapons and as prison currency, were discovered missing Jan. 5 after someone forced open the door of the tool room in the auto body paint shop, prison spokesman Lt. Ken Lewis said. The auto body paint shop is part of the vocational training program at California State Prison, Los Angeles County. No arrests were immediately made. About 1,060 inmates of maximum security Facility B were placed on a modified program, meaning that they cannot receive packages, telephone calls or attend religious services, cannot use the exercise yard and must eat in their cells, Lewis said. Guards had searched the yard and some cells and were interviewing inmates but had yet to find the missing blades, he said, adding that the search may continue through the week. Lewis said he could not recall a similar theft. The blades make "the perfect concealed weapon" and may have been sold by the thief to other inmates for money, cigarettes or canteen items, Lewis said. "When you're living in a maximum security prison it's not uncommon for inmates to arm themselves, because you just don't know when you might be a victim of assault," he said. The prison is located about 40 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Daily News Beaten prison guard in hospital
By Charles F. Bostwick
Monday, April 05, 2004 - LANCASTER -- A state prison correctional officer remains hospitalized after an attack Friday by two inmates, officials said. The officer, whose name was not released, suffered what prison officials described as minor hemorrhaging and swelling on the left side of his brain as well as injuries to his face and arms. 'He is improving, and that's good news for us," prison spokesman Lt. Ron Nipper said Monday. The officer was attacked about 2 p.m. Friday in an exercise yard at the maximum-security California State Prison-Los Angeles County, officials said. A group of inmates was in the yard when two men attacked the officer, knocking him down and kicking him in the head, officials said. The assailants were identified as a 20-year-old inmate serving 13- and 18-year sentences for attempted robberies, and a 29-year-old inmate serving a 34-year sentence for multiple rape convictions. Prison officials will investigate and turn over evidence to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for a decision on whether to prosecute the men, officials said. The inmates were transferred Friday to another prison. They were identified as Gregory Paul Gaines, 20, who was sent to prison
in April 2003 from San Diego County, and Harold Xavier Wesley, 29, who
was sent to prison in 2001 from Los Angeles County.
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