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| Officials: Jail fight sparked by racial slur |
| By Journal-Advocate |
| Published: 07/19/2004 |
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Details are emerging about a racially prodded fistfight last week inside the Logan County (Colo.) jail that ended with two prisoners being put in segregation. A racial slur earned a white prisoner several punches during the brief fracas that jailkeepers quickly quelled without injuries, officials said. The scuffle involved three detainees of different ethnicity, they said. Sheriff's deputies were also summoned to the fight in progress at the county lockup July 7. The trouble came just after breakfast in E Pod, where a few inmate bystanders watched, jail personnel said. Most of the section's dozen men had already returned to their cells before the fight. Only two men tangled, including one of the jail's few black prisoners, said jail Administrator John Johnson. Most detainees are white and Hispanic, he noted, including a dozen women. While both he and Logan County Sheriff Bob Bollish played down the significance of the disturbance, Johnson conceded that racial strife behind bars here is uncommon. Tensions among men under confinement is part of jail culture, he explained, but racial strife is not so pedestrian. To put things in perspective, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation tracks hate crimes at city and county jails, and also at state prisons. Its Crime in Colorado report revealed no hate-driven crimes last year, according to CBI agent Patrick Maroney. There was only one such crime the previous year, the lead agent noted. But the site of that incident was not immediately known. Last Wednesday's fight provides a glimpse of jail practices and policies that affect the lives of an estimated 75 men and women who are serving time right now. The jail chief refused to disclose the identities of the two combatants in their 30s, but he did say a Hispanic man in his 20s jumped in as a peacemaker. The white detainee is awaiting disposition of a drunken driving complaint, he said, and the black prisoner is being held on federal charges. |
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