State plans to close prison at California City and Facility D at CCI | News
California’s state prison population has dropped by about 22 percent in the last four years and on Dec. 6 the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced plans to close two more prisons — including the California City Correctional Facility. The department also plans to deactivate parts of six other prisons, including Facility D at the California Correctional Institution at Tehachapi.
Facility D, also known as CCI’s medium facility, is the second-oldest part of the prison. It opened in 1967. According to Warden Brian Cates, the facility at CCI is slated to close by the end of June 2023. The number of staff positions that will be lost has not yet been made public.
The state plans to end the contract for the leased California City facility in March 2024. A spokesperson for the CDCR provided recent documents showing that the California City facility had a total of 532 budgeted positions, of which nine were management, 362 uniformed custody, 21 non-uniformed custody, 113 support staff, 23 education and four building trades.
The other prison to be closed is Chuckawalla State Prison — one of two facilities in Blythe.
And what the department calls deactivations are planned at six prisons. In addition to Facility D at CCI, these are Facility A at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, Facility D at the California Institution for Men in Chino, Facility C at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, the West Facility at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo and the entire women’s facility in Folsom.
‘mothballing’
The state shut down the Level I facility at CCI in September 2021, essentially “mothballing” the prison’s original buildings there in case they are needed in the future.
That’s apparently the plan for the latest planned deactivations.
“Should a significant need for capacity arise in the future due to a natural disaster or other serious need, this option gives the state the possibility to reactivate these facilities at a later date,” the news release stated.
In part because of the Level I deactivation — and in part because of the continued downward trend in the state prison population — the incarcerated population at CCI has declined by about 25 percent since November 2019 — slightly more than the overall decline.
Because prison staffing is related to inmate population, another deactivation at CCI — in addition to the state’s closure of the California City facility — may have an economic impact on the city of Tehachapi.
“We are in communication with our local state elected officials and are trying to determine what the impact will be to our community, most importantly the jobs of Tehachapi residents who staff both facilities,” City Manager Greg Garrett said in a news release on Dec. 6.
“The prisons are an economic driver for both communities where the prisons are located,” he noted. “We know there will be both short-term and long-term harm to the region due to these decisions made in Sacramento.”
Interim City Manager Jim Hart of the city of California City said in an email on Dec. 6 that it’s too early to know exactly what impact the loss of state prison jobs will have.
“But in general, any loss of employment in the city will negatively impact the community,” he said.
California allows cities to count inmates as part of their population, resulting in income that helps offset community impacts.
“We rely on sales taxes and other state subsidies that include prisoners as part of the calculation,” Hart said. “Less spending power equals less revenue.”
He noted that he hopes to work with Garrett to see if the two cities can partner to seek assistance, as needed, at the state or federal level.
Cal City prison
The California City Correctional Facility is the last contract facility used by the CDCR. The 2,560-bed facility is owned by the publicly-traded firm CoreCivic, headquartered in Nashville, Tenn. The CDCR said the annual lease expense is currently $32 million.
“It is a leased facility with our CoreCivic partners since 2013, and was necessary to help address overcrowding in state prisons,” the agency said. “Now that the term of the lease is expiring and there is additional space at nearby facilities, it makes sense to transition our staff and population into our state-owned facilities.”
As of Nov. 30, the incarcerated population at the leased facility was 1,906.
The department said it will work to minimize the impact on staff when the prison closes.
“CDCR will work to limit the impact to employees affected by these closures and deactivations,” the agency said. “This will include options to transfer both within and outside of impacted counties, and identification of employees for redirection to neighboring prisons where there are existing identified vacancies.”
CoreCivic
Then known as Corrections Corporation of America, the company built the $100 million California City facility in the late 1990s. Originally, it hoped to fill the prison with state inmates to help address the overcrowding of California’s system at the time. Opposition from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association spelled doom to that plan.
Eventually the prison landed a federal contract, but by October 2013 a new deal was in the works as the CDCR leased the facility. Options for the private prison’s staff included transferring to another company facility out of state or signing on with the CDCR, which provided fast-track recruitment to bring staff into state employment.
A spokesperson for CoreCivic responded to a request for comment on Dec. 6.
“CoreCivic is immensely proud of our opportunity over the past nine years to help California successfully manage through its historic challenges with prison overcrowding,” Steve Owen of the company said. “Our partnership has demonstrated the value and flexibility we provide to governments across our full range of solutions, including through innovative lease agreements like the one at the California City Correctional Center.
“Over the course of our partnership at CCCC, we have provided California with modernized capacity to deliver vital reentry programming and healthcare services that have improved the quality of life and work for individuals incarcerated there and the hundreds of state employees caring for them,” he added.
Owen said that the company understands that CDCR’s announced plans to allow the contract to expire at the end of March 2024 are part of the state’s ongoing budgeting process to reduce systemwide capacity due to a declining population.
“We are in contact with California officials to discuss the state’s plans, including the decision on the lease agreement, with the understanding that the budget process is still ongoing,” he said.
Other prisons
The state prison population has steadily reduced since it peaked at more than 165,000 in 2006. On Nov. 30, the total number of people in state prisons was 92,620.
A series of court decisions and new laws put in place by Propositions 47 (2014) and 57 (2016) — in addition to policy changes — have resulted in fewer incarcerated people. Because the laws reduced penalties for most non-serious, non-violent property and drug crimes — and allowed more credits to reduce sentences — the result is that the CDCR has less need for its lower security housing.
The state once had 34 adult prisons, including the leased facility and a prison hospital facility at Stockton. During the 2020-21 budget process, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to close two state prisons.
The first, Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, closed in September 2021. But plans for closure of the California Correctional Center were derailed for a time when the city of Susanville south of the state. In early September the lawsuit was dismissed. Although the CDCR’s prison closure website states that the prison will close in 2023, the agency’s weekly report shows no inmates at the facility since Oct. 26
The state has three other prisons in Kern County — North Kern and Kern Valley state prisons in Delano and Wasco State Prison. Collectively their inmate populations are down about 18 percent from November 2019, official reports show. Another state prison near Tehachapi and California City is in Lancaster — California State Prison, Los Angeles County. That prison’s population has dropped about 23 percent in the past four years.
At the end of November 2019, state prisons were at 131.5 percent of design capacity, according to CDCR population reports. On Nov. 30 they were at 108.5 percent of design capacity. The same reports showed that staffing has been reduced by only about 9 percent during that period.
Claudia Elliott is a freelance journalist and former editor of the Tehachapi News. She lives in Tehachapi and can be reached by email: [email protected].