By Julia Reynolds
Monterey County Herald
SALINAS VALLEY, Calif. — A man airlifted with serious injuries after a riot on Tuesday at Salinas Valley State Prison remained hospitalized in stable condition Wednesday, officials said.
Two men evacuated by ambulance remained in outside hospitals, Lt. Michael Nilsson said, and nine others were released from area hospitals and brought back to the prison late Tuesday.
Of 18 inmates injured, six were treated in the prison’s medical facility, he said.
Officials on Wednesday lowered the number of participants estimated to have taken part in the riot from 159 to 69, as investigators interviewed inmates who were on the maximum-security, general population yard.
The fighting broke out just after 11 a.m. Although it was quickly contained by officers using pepper spray and rubber bullets, outside medical personnel stayed on the scene into the evening in case more injured men were found.
Nilsson said eight “stabbing or slashing weapons” were confiscated.
He declined to say what groups or individuals may have been involved. But like other high-security “Level Four” yards in the state’s prisons, the facility is known for violent clashes between gang groups.
Those believed to have been involved in the fight are being held in administrative segregation, known to inmates as “the hole,” until the investigation concludes.
That group includes suspected perpetrators and victims, Nilsson said.
“We can’t have them out moving freely because we can’t determine yet who’s fighting who,” he said.
The prison remains on lockdown, with inmates unable to make phone calls or have visits under what officials call a “modified program.”
If there is enough evidence showing specific inmates stabbed or assaulted others, Nilsson said, the prison’s investigators could forward charges to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office.
Given the nature of those housed on a Level Four yard, he said, it is possible some inmates could face second or third strikes under California’s three strikes law.
Another option is to charge the inmates internally, in which case they could serve part of their sentences in the state’s “prison within a prison” the supermax Security Housing Units in Pelican Bay, Tehachapi or Corcoran State Prison.
Although information was not immediately available Wednesday about the scale of past riots at the prison, Nilsson said, “I can’t remember the last time we sent out this many inmates” to hospitals.
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