California officials have announced the shutdown of two more prisons, including one in Kern County, and the deactivation of units in other prisons, including the one in Tehachapi.
So, now what? What’s the plan for these and future closures? What is to become of the rural communities that rely on prisons and the jobs they create for economic viability?
The state legislative analyst slammed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for failing to explain — or even have — a long-range plan for the closures and the use of surplus prison property.
This is not to debate the merits of the closures, which are necessary. Rather, it is to object to the state’s apparent abandonment of the rural communities that have hosted state prisons for decades.
In 1981, while Jerry Brown was well into his first act as governor, California had only 12 prisons that were bursting their seams with inmates serving increasingly longer sentences. The state had not built a new prison in two decades.
At Brown’s request, the Legislature placed a $495 million prison bond measure on the 1982 ballot and voters passed it. In the next two decades, the number of state prisons tripled.
While urban voters and legislators fully embraced the get-tough-on-crime-inspired prison frenzy, they shunned building prisons in their communities. Instead, Tehachapi, Delano and other rural communities — many of them in the San Joaquin Valley — were enticed to welcome prisons by the promises of good-paying jobs and economic benefits.
But the economic gravy train has stopped.
As California’s inmate population continued to increase, its 35 prisons struggled with overcrowding. By 2006, the inmate population reached 173,479. For some facilities, it was two times their capacity — a condition federal judges ruled was unconstitutional.
A number of new policies, law changes and voter-approved ballot initiatives were used to free up space. Inmate sentences were reduced, lower-risk inmates were released earlier, and some were transferred to county jails. California’s prison population was further reduced by early releases during the pandemic to prevent COVID’s spread.
In 2021, the aging Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy was slated to be “deactivated,” as was the California Correctional Center in Susanville. Deuel was the first state prison to be closed in two decades. Susanville officials attempted to block the closure of their state prison with a lawsuit, which recently was dismissed by a judge.
The state’s most recent announcement calls for the closure of the Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Riverside County and the California City Correctional Facility in eastern Kern County.
The privately owned, 2,550-bed California City prison has been leased by the state since 2013. With the lease expiring, inmates and staff will be transferred to state-owned prisons.
The CDCR also has announced plans to deactivate sections of six other prisons, including Facility D at the California Correctional Institution at Tehachapi. City officials estimate 800 inmates are housed at the facility.
Predicting California’s inmate population will continue to decline and prison facilities will close, the legislative analyst stated in his 2021-22 budget review that state prison officials must do a better job of justifying and explaining their plans.
The Newsom administration also needs to do a better job of working with rural communities that have hosted state prisons for decades.
California is not alone in having to reduce inmate populations and close prisons.
Consider New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul last year created a commission “to look for ways to revitalize our economy, including reimagining shuttered state prisons as hubs of regional opportunity.”
In addition to including state and local officials, community representatives and development experts, the commission is co-chaired by the Ford Foundation president.
Some examples of recent prison repurposing are New York’s sale of a Staten Island prison for use as a movie and television production studio; Tennessee’s transformation of a prison into a tourist destination that includes a distillery, restaurant and museum; and Virginia’s former maximum prison that now is a complex for budding artists.
The economic void left by California’s prison closures should be innovatively filled, as well. This will require state support and leadership.