Loved ones of inmates protest outside CTF Soledad in wake of large riot

A large scale riot Wednesday at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad sent eight inmates to the hospital and left about 50 more injured.

Loved ones of inmates at the prison and other prison activists brought signs and chanted outside the gates of CTF Soledad on Friday.

“They know this violence is going to happen, and they keep placing our loved one’s in hostile environments,” Diana Cruz said.

Diana Cruz has been leading the peaceful protests for nearly a year. It started when the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation added a program that merges two different populations of inmates, no longer isolating every prisoner assigned to the sensitive needs program.

Cruz and others say that’s causing riots and fights. A claim the CDCR denies.

“These inmates are known enemies,” Cruz said.

The large riot Wednesday broke out on the yard at the Correctional Training Facility that involved 200 inmates. Eight of them were transferred to Natividad in Salinas with broken bones and puncture wounds.

Cruz’s loved one is in the same facility.

“I didn’t know what was going on I couldn’t even function at work,” Cruz said.

The fights and riots like these are on the family members minds at all times.

“Is he going to be okay am i going to get a call that he died?” Melissa Lopez said.

The CDCR says they began the integration program with the goal of treating the prison yard like a real life situation and not separating groups of inmates.

Two inmates are still in the hospital from Wednesday’s riot. The CDCR says they are in stable condition.

The Monterey County District Attorney’s office and the prison are investigating what caused the riot.