CA. Governor Gavin Newson has proposed a new bill that will close mulptiple Federal prisons in the upcoming year with Lompoc Federal prison being the first of many. The plan includes closing the main prison while keeping the prison’s Low facility in operation.”These changes will reduce the inmate population by approximately 1,000 persons and will reduce the staffing by half, according to the Department of Corrections,” says District 10 State Rep. Victor Anderson, whose district includes the prison facility.
SACRAMENTO, CA – Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) and other prison reform advocates, in an online rally late last week, demanded Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration and state legislature adopt a “community-informed roadmap to close at least seven more prisons by 2025 as part of this year’s budget process.”
The prison reform advocates said more than 250 people attended the Close California Prisons campaign online rally and press conference in “response” to the governor’s 2023-24 Proposed Budget Summary.
“According to the proposed budget, California will save $417 million from closing prisons, yet CDCR will still receive a budget increase this year of $468 million. How does that make sense?” said Brian Kaneda, Deputy Director, CURB.
Kaneda noted, “California is facing a $24 billion deficit and CDCR is a money pit—instead of wasting resources on a state department with out-of-control spending, these dollars should be invested back into the communities that need it most.”
CURB’s Roadmap Overview released last week suggests how California can “prepare for and carry out closures, support communities impacted by incarceration, and invest in towns where prisons will be closed.” CURB said it will release the full report in February.
Yoel Haile, Director of the Criminal Justice Program, ACLU NorCal, said, “The recently announced closure of Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Riverside County, the third such announcement in two years, has increased the inventory of empty prisons in California. Rather than keeping closed prisons in ‘warm shutdown’ mode, costing taxpayers millions, closed prisons should be torn down or repurposed for positive non-carceral use.”