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   From: DEMI_GOD_@SHAW.CA   
      
    Prison Remains Locked Down After Riot   
      
      
   By Lance Pugmire and Mary MacVean   
      
   A private prison in the Mojave Desert was locked down today as authorities   
   began a bunk-by-bunk investigation into a riot that left 17 inmates injured.   
      
   The California Department of Corrections sent a 16-member team to the   
   Cornell Corrections Facility, on the outskirts of Baker, to look into the   
   Tuesday night incident.   
      
   Armed officers in helmets with face shields interviewed inmates this morning   
   in a courtyard. Some inmates wore only light-blue underwear in the chilly   
   morning air, but were allowed to dress after they were interviewed.   
   Afterward, guards escorted inmates back to their cells.   
      
   Charles Ayers, director of the prison, said he did not know how the riot   
   began or what weapons were used.   
      
   Most of the injured inmates were stabbed, said Tracey Martinez, spokeswoman   
   for the San Bernardino County Fire Department. She said broomsticks and   
   rocks were among the weapons used.   
      
   Four were taken to hospitals by helicopters and 12 by ambulance. One person   
   was treated at the scene, she said. Late this morning, seven inmates were   
   returned in a van.   
      
   There were no reports of injuries to guards or other authorities.   
      
   More than 100 inmates were involved, and a small fire was set during the   
   disturbance, which began around 8 p.m. and lasted about two hours.   
      
   A "very minor" fire was confined to a guard's shack, Martinez said, adding   
   that it "extinguished itself."   
      
   The 262-bed, minimum-security prison, which opened in 1988, handles   
   prisoners under contract with the California Department of Corrections.   
   There have been no previous reports of major disturbances.   
      
   Baker, a rural community northeast of Los Angeles, is on Interstate 15, the   
   main highway to Las Vegas.   
      
   It was the second riot in six weeks at a privately run prison in the Mojave   
   Desert. The first, on Oct. 25 at a lockup in Eagle Mountain in eastern   
   Riverside County, left two convicts dead and several with minor injuries.   
      
   Times staff writer Louis Sahagun contributed to this report   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)