OVERCROWDED

Prison Riot Sparked by Race

Warning signs noted two years ago.

The California prison riot that left 175 inmates hurt over the weekend occurred in a portion of a Chino facility that was holding twice its intended capacity, the Los Angeles Times reports. The riot was reportedly sparked by tensions between Latino and black inmates, which will most likely set back Supreme Court-mandated efforts to desegregate California prisons' "reception centers." Two years ago, corrections experts warned that overcrowding at the Chino prison was "a serious disturbance waiting to happen," in part because hardened criminals mingled with minor offenders. California prisons had made a habit of segregating prisoners to avoid conflicts between rival groups, a practice outlawed by the Supreme Court in 2005. The effort to reintegrate the inmates at Chino, in addition to the overcrowding, appears to have sparked the four-hour uprising, which left part of the facility in flames. California is under a federal court order to decrease its total prison population by 43,000 in the next two years.