Five Orange County sheriff’s deputies sustained minor injuries in a clash with inmates at the Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana Thursday.
The melee happened just before 7:30 a.m. as inmates were exchanging dirty clothes and sheets for clean laundry in a hallway, said Carrie Braun of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Verbal sparring between the deputies and the inmates escalated into a brawl, Braun said.
The deputies were taken to an area hospital to be treated for injuries such as scrapes, cuts, bruises and possible concussion. One of the inmates involved in the scuffle was also taken to a hospital with moderate injuries, Braun said.
The jail on Flower Street was placed on lockdown, restricting all unnecessary movements in the facility, such as outdoor recreation and visits, Braun said.
Sheriff-elect Don Barnes the brawl on state prison reduction measures, which has led to more hardened criminals in custody in local jails.
“This incident directly correlates to the changing criminal sophistication of the inmates in our jail that have resulted from legislative mandates like Assembly Bill 109,” Barnes said.
Attacks on deputies from inmates are “not new,” Barnes said, adding the state prison reform law has led to a “rapid increase” of such assaults.
From 2007 to 2011, the county averaged 26.8 inmate-on-deputy assaults annually, but from 2012 through 2017 that number jumped to 64.5 assaults per year, a 140 percent increase, Barnes said.