California is looking to close prisons. Could CMC be on the short list?

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is considering closing five state prisons within the next few years, and the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo is on a list of facilities that may be most at risk.

The plans came as the state announced last week the closure of two aging prisons,

Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy and California Correctional Center in Susanville. As part of that announcement, CDCR listed the 12 oldest state prisons most in need of improvements.

According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the state could close a total of five prisons by 2025, which in turn could save an estimated $1.5 billion in annual spending. The corrections department, which has a budget of $16 billion, oversees 34 prisons and more than 50,000 employees.

And that may not be all. The state’s rapidly shrinking inmate population could also prompt even more closures.

New criminal sentencing laws over the last decade gradually reduced the state’s prison population from about 144,000 inmates in 2011 to about 120,000 last year. The number of inmates in state custody plummeted in the coronavirus pandemic, dropping to about 95,000 this month.

Those numbers have some state lawmakers urging the corrections department to close more sites.

California Men’s Colony currently has a population of approximately 3,000 inmates and roughly 1,800 employees.

Its number of inmates shrunk by about 700 between the beginning of COVID-19 protocols in March and December, according to CDCR. It’s designed to house just over 3,800 inmates.

It was built in 1961, and is the ninth-oldest of California’s 34 state-owned prisons, according to the LAO.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation uses several criteria when determining whether to close a facility.

Those factors include:

• Cost to operate at the new reduced capacity
• Impact of closure on the workforce
• Housing needs for all populations
• Long-term investments in state-owned and operated correctional facilities
• Public safety and rehabilitation
• Durability of the state’s solution to prison overcrowding

Major employers

The two closures currently announced in Tracy and Susanville have a number of things in common.

Both facilities are old; the facility in Tracy was built in 1953, while the prison in Susanville was built in 1963. Both facilities have hundreds of millions of dollars worth of deferred maintenance that needs to be completed, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

And both facilities are major employers in their communities.

The California Correctional Center, in rural Lassen County, employs more than 1,000 people. There are only 8,800 jobs in the whole county, according to Staci Heaton, acting vice president for governmental affairs with Rural County Representatives of California.

Heaton said that the state provided nearly no notice to Lassen County government officials before announcing the planned closure on Tuesday. With the way the government handled the California Correctional Center closing, there’s reason for rural counties to be concerned, Heaton said.

“We’d be crazy not to worry that there will be more closures in rural areas,” Heaton said.

Deferred maintenance in old prisons

The Legislative Analyst’s Office, in a 2020 report, provided a list of the 12 oldest prisons that collectively have more than $11 billion in deferred maintenance costs.

Estimated costs for 12 identified projects at California Men’s Colony rang in at $1.55 billion, second in expenses only to the state’s oldest prison, San Quentin, which had some $1.64 billion in deferred maintenance projects.

Other facilities on the list include: Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, California Institution for Men in Chino, California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, Folsom State Prison, Correctional Medical Facility in Vacaville, California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown and California Institution for Women in Corona.

Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, has been an outspoken supporter of cutting prison expenses, and he commended the state’s Tuesday decision to close the California Correctional Center in Susanville.

“We spend almost as much on our corrections system as we do for our higher education system, and most Californians would say that’s not the best use of taxpayer funds,” Ting said in an interview.

Ting called the closure announcement a good first step, but said that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation needs to do a better job of identifying potential prison closures, and also of working with communities to mitigate the impact of shutdowns.

One group that celebrated Tuesday’s closure announcement was Californians United for a Responsible Budget. The group challenged the idea that closing prisons will have a harmful effect on the rural communities where they are located, calling them “Republican talking points.”

“Prisons are not healthy employment engines for communities,” Deputy Director Brian Kaneda said in a statement. “They are traumatic, unhealthy places that lead to lasting physical and emotional health impacts for the people that work in these facilities.”

Central Coast lawmakers weigh in on CMC

On Monday, state Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, whose district includes San Luis Obispo, said in an emailed statement that he’s following the issue closely, but there’s currently no indication that any effort is underway to shutter the local facility, adding that he “will remain vigilant for our community.”

“As one of the area’s largest employers, CMC is critically important for local jobs and the local economy, so I would take very seriously any suggestion that a closure or reduction in workforce at CMC may be coming,” Laird wrote. “Any potential adjustments or closures would need to be studied very carefully and vetted with the community.”

He wrote that overall, California’s correctional facilities have seen a decline in inmate populations through “much-needed criminal justice reforms” and reduced crime rates.

“Importantly, CMC SLO is an integral institution in the community, and performs a valuable service to the state system,” Laird wrote.

State Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, R-San Luis Obispo, who represents San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties, said Monday that rumors of the facility’s closing are “nothing more than speculation,” though he said he would “strongly oppose any such proposal from the administration.”

“CMC is a large employer and, with a nine-figure operating budget, a major economic driver in our region,” Cunningham wrote in an email. “I cannot imagine any local elected leader being in favor of our county losing more jobs — especially after the hit our economy took as a result of COVID-19 closures.”

CMC was hit hard by COVID-19

CMC was among the state correctional facilities worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and an outbreak in December ultimately led to more than 80% of its inmate population and more than a quarter of its employees testing positive for coronavirus.

Ten inmates died of COVID-19-related illness.

In its 60 years of existence, the low- and mid-security prison has housed dozens of high-profile inmates including several members of the Charles Manson “family,” “Tool-box killers” Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight, R&B singer Ike Turner, and rock n’ roll super group drummer and convicted murderer Jim Gordon.

Famed LSD guru Timothy Leary escaped from the facility in 1970.

This story was originally published April 19, 2021 at 1:14 PM with the headline "California is looking to close prisons. Could CMC be on the short list?."