North County Correctional Facility (NCCF) is a

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, English language in England, standard English, Australian English, Australian, and Huron Historic Gaol, historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention cen ...

, run by the

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff's department in the United States ...

. Located approximately northwest of downtown

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, it is one of four jails located within the

Pitchess Detention Center Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center, also known as Pitchess Detention Center or simply Pitchess, is an all-male county detention center and correctional facility named in honor of Peter J. Pitchess located directly east of exit 173 off Intersta ...

(named after former Sheriff

Peter J. Pitchess Peter J. Pitchess (February 26, 1912 – April 4, 1999) was the 28th Sheriff of Los Angeles County, California, serving from 1958 to 1981. He is credited with modernizing the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, turning the department into ...

), in

Castaic, California Castaic () (Chumash: ''Kaštiq''; Spanish: ''Castéc'') is an unincorporated community in the northwestern part of Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 19,015. For statistical purposes the Census Bureau ...

. The facility's construction began in 1985, and it was formally dedicated on March 1, 1990 by then Sheriff,

Sherman Block Sherman Block (July 19, 1924 – October 28, 1998) was the 29th Sheriff of Los Angeles County, California from January 1982 until his death. He was preceded by Peter Pitchess and succeeded by Lee Baca. Biography Block was born to a Jewish family ...

, and the

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...

, George H. W. Bush. NCCF consists of five jails within the same facility, and it has an inmate population of about 3,800. It can provide for disciplinary segregation and clinic-level medical treatment. The facility is commonly referred to as the "Flagship"; it was designed and constructed to be cost-efficient with regard to the ratio of staff members to inmates and vocational productivity. NCCF has a ratio of ten inmates to each staff member. The facility features educational, vocational and counseling programs. These programs have been designed to assist the facility's inmates in becoming self-sufficient within the law.

2006 riot

On Saturday, February 4, 2006, a prison riot at the facility injured over 100 inmates. Nine inmates were critically injured, and eight had minor injuries. One inmate was pronounced dead at the scene. Numerous ambulances were summoned to the remote facility after fighting began and custody personnel deployed

tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ...

to quell the disturbance. No law enforcement personnel were injured in the riot. According to deputies, the four-hour riot was sparked by racial tensions generated outside the prison between Mexican and African-American gang members. In retribution for a conflict between these gangs and in a show of the reach of their power, Mexican gang leaders had successfully ordered Mexican prisoners within the NCCF compound to drop furniture items from several stories above onto unsuspecting African-American prisoners below, with whom they had no personal differences. On Wednesday, April 28, 2010, two inmates, Jose Baldeno and Winder Barrios, were discovered missing during a 3:15 a.m. headcount. The two were captured several hours later.

References

External links

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's information about the North County Correctional FacilityInstructions for Visiting Inmates at NCCF and Visiting HoursLos Angeles County - Pitchess Detention Center, ''North'' FacilityBoston Globe article about the 2006 riot at NCCF
{{coord, 34, 27, 06, N, 118, 36, 38, W, scale:10000, display=title Buildings and structures in Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Prisons in California 2006 riots Prison uprisings in the United States 1990 establishments in California