Deputies injured after inmate assault at Theo Lacy jail in Orange

Two deputies were hospitalized after being assaulted by an inmate on Monday during a meal service at the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange, authorities said.

Orange County Sheriff’s Department officials said in a Wednesday statement the incident was unprovoked, and took place at about 5 p.m. during an evening meal at the jail. A scuffle apparently began with an inmate targeting a deputy and attacking him from behind, said Tom Dominguez, president of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs. A second deputy who attempted to intervene was also injured.

The inmate was treated by jail medical staff, said the sheriff’s statement. The inmate was not immediately identified.

By Wednesday the deputies were out of the hospital recovering from their injuries, which did not appear to be serious, Dominguez said.

This incident happened just a few weeks after a similar one at the Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana. On the evening of Sept. 29, three deputies were injured in a melee that began with an inmate targeting one deputy during meal time. The deputies had to be hospitalized. In another incident in December 2018, dozens of inmates attacked five deputies.

Sheriff’s officials also called those attacks unprovoked.

“It’s frustrating to me…to see these things keep happening,” Dominguez said.

The union leader liked Orange County’s jails to prisons, saying the types of inmates in the facilities are more hardened “shot callers” who more often incite violence.

Much of this uptick is often attributed by officials to Assembly Bill 109, which shifted the responsibility of housing thousands of state prisoners to county facilities. The change, often called “realignment,” has bloated jail numbers and made local lockups more dangerous, officials have said.

“It’s the state prison-type inmates that influence (the rest of the inmates),” Dominguez said.

The number of attacks on staff members has increased in recent years, sheriff’s officials say.

From 2007 to 2011, an average of 26.8 inmate-on-staff assaults occurred per year. From 2012 to 2017, it went up to 64.5.

“My fear is that this becomes commonplace … or that the public think this its just part of the job to end up in the hospital. It’s not,” he said.

Reporter Eric Licas contributed to this story.