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Prison Legal News

Guards Used “Blast Grenades” to Break Up Mob Attack 
in California Prison

Loaded on July 15, 2025 published in Prison Legal News July, 2025, page 52
Filed under: Failure to Protect (General), Pepper Spray/Tear Gas, Prisoner Privileges, Telephone Access. Location: California.

On June 6, 2025, Julian Mendez, 46, a prisoner on death row at the Kern Valley State Prison in Riverside County, California, was killed by inmate Mario Renteria, 36, using a makeshift weapon, KGET in Bakersfield reported. During the attack, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), guards ordered the men to “get down,” but the two prisoners ignored this command; the guards then used “chemical agents” in an attempt to break up the fight. Around this time, around 30 other prisoners rushed in and began striking Renteria. Guards, having lost control of the situation, launched “blast grenades” to disperse the crowd. 

Following the incident, the CDCR implemented a modified program to investigate a rise in violence and overdoses at certain facilities including Kern Valley. Medical and legal services remained in place during the program, but access to phones, tablet communications, and in-person visitations were suspended. As of this writing, on June 26, the state lifted the restrictions in nine prisons but kept them in place in Kern Valley and 11 others.  

 

Additional source: KTLA

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  2. From the Editor, by Paul Wright
  3. Free Calls in Massachusetts Lead to 
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  5. 14th Alabama Sheriff’s Employee Pleads Guilty 
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  7. Latest Jail Booking Info Is Based on New Data Source
  8. JPay Loses Bid to Revoke Class Certification in Washington Prisoners’ Challenge to Crummy Products and Service
  9. Trump Pardons Virginia Sheriff Convicted 
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  10. Over One-Third of Older Texas Prisoners 
Suffering Cognitive Impairment, by Matthew Clarke
  11. New Jersey Supreme Court Refuses Guard’s Challenge to Firing 
for Failing to Report Kiss with Prisoner, by Douglas Ankney
  12. Oregon Prisoners Can Now Seek Economic Damages 
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  13. Bold New Orleans Escape Calls Attention 
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  14. Sixth Guard Sentenced in West Virginia Killing 
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  16. Gag Order on Tennessee Attorney for Criticizing CoreCivic 
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  17. Nearly $60,000 Awarded to Mother Of Dead Missouri Prisoner 
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  18. New York City Loses Bid to Withhold Jail Records, by Douglas Ankney
  19. Eleventh Circuit Announces New Deliberate Indifference 
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for Skipped Anti-Seizure Meds, by Douglas Ankney
  20. Ninth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Arizona Challenge 
to Private Prisons
  21. Wiccan Nevada Prisoner Wins 18-Year Fight for Religious Items, by Clark Nelly
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  30. Trump’s “Border Czar” Was 
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