California's use of race as a basis for locking prisoners in their cells after fights amounts to illegal discrimination and should be banned, attorneys representing inmates said in a class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The policy unfairly punishes innocent inmates simply because they have the same color skin as those involved in the violence, the nonprofit Prison Law Office said in its suit, filed in federal court in Sacramento.

Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said lockdowns are sometimes necessary to protect safety and security. It is not the department's policy to base lockdowns and other restrictions solely on race or ethnicity, she said...

Washington state has found a way to save money on prisons -- restrict inmates to their cells one day a month and pare back staff.

Desperate to respond to slumping revenue, many states are looking to squeeze savings out of penitentiaries, with solutions ranging from lock-downs to turning inmates over to private companies.

Prisons in Washington state will go on lock-down one day a month through June, confining inmates to cells and adjacent living areas. That cuts the need for resources and lets wardens send some staff home -- without pay...

An appeals panel on Tuesday reinstated a federal civil rights lawsuit in Sacramento, ruling that a series of lockdowns primarily targeting African American inmates at a Susanville prison amounted to racial discrimination.

The lockdowns in 2002 and 2003 at High Desert State Prison followed assaults on prison staff carried out or planned by one or two black inmates.

Correctional officials at the prison "apparently believe that, without showing any linkage between the perpetrators and the prisoners subjected to the lockdown, it was enough to assume that race alone tied (them) together. … An assumption of this kind is grounded on race," a three-judge panel of the 9th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a sharply worded opinion…

Authorities say inmates at a California prison used canes, walkers and wheelchair parts as weapons in fights that sent 24 prisoners to hospitals and forced the facility to be put on lockdown.

Administrators are investigating the violence Monday between rival Latino gangs at Avenal State Prison.

Spokeswoman Terry Thornton of the California Department of Corrections says the fights began around 8:30 p.m. in the yard of one of six dormitory complexes on the prison grounds. Fights later erupted in other dormitories…

The California Correctional Institution in Cummings Valley remains on a modified program as of Wednesday, Aug. 12 in response to the serious inmate disturbance at the California Institution for Men in Chino over the weekend.

A modified program is not as severe as a lockdown, in which all inmates are confined to their cells, said California Correctional Institution (CCI) Public Information Officer Jon Bartelmie.

The Chino disturbance erupted Saturday, Aug. 8. Bartelmie said that CCI sent 79 officers, supervisors and medical personnel to assist at the Chino facility. The last one returned Tuesday, Aug. 11…

The California Institution for Men remained on lockdown Monday after a 4-hour riot over the weekend hospitalized 55 inmates and injured 175.

All 10 prisons in Southern California were placed on lockdown until further notice, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Prison spokesman Lt. Mark Hargrove said 80 officers responded to the riot Saturday night, which involved some 1,300 inmates in eight barracks. The uprising lasted for about four hours. At least one housing unit caught fire…

A convict serving a life term at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility attacked a guard with a makeshift knife Tuesday, leaving him with non-lethal wounds and prompting a lockdown at the prison.

The inmate assaulted the officer with an altered disposable razor as the victim was beginning his shift and approaching his work area about 8 a.m., said Lt. Michael Stout, a spokesman for the Otay Mesa-area state penitentiary.

"The officer was able to defend himself, preventing additional injuries, until responding staff arrived to gain control of the inmate," Stout said…

The statewide lockdown for California state prisons, community correctional facilities, and conservation camps, is off Friday night, but some inmates will remain on lockdown.

Usually on Fridays at the California Men's Colony, it is visiting day through Sunday, but because of the statewide lockdown that was put into place, family and friends were unable to see inmates Friday.

A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says as a precautionary measure to keep staff and inmates safe, the statewide lockdown was issued…

An Indiana state prison that was the site of a riot last year involving inmates from Arizona was locked down after three guards were treated for minor injuries in a fight with prisoners. At least some of the inmates involved in the fight were from Arizona, said Nolberto Machiche, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Corrections. The state sends inmates to the Indiana prison as part of a deal between the states…