On September 25 the LA County Board of Supervisors approved a $75 million plan to relocate 512 low security inmates to a vacant correctional facility in Taft,in the southern San Joaquin Valley, cutting LA’s daily prisoner housing cost by more than half. The move comes as Los Angeles seeks to close its violence-plagued Men’s Central Jail and relocate up to 3000 inmates in several phases.
“We believe Coalinga is next in line” says that Fresno County community city manager Darrel Pyle, adding that Coalinga city staff is already in advanced discussions with LA County to accept another round of prisoners next year relocating up to 526 of them to the vacant Claremont Correctional Facility. The complex has been closed for more than a year after the city lost a Department of Corrections contract. That loss has had the city scrambling to find new inmates to fill the place.
Also in line is the City of Delano Correctional Facility, says Pyle, with all three cities moving to forge a Joint Powers Authority to help manage costs.
The LA deal would bring some 98 jobs back to Coalinga – lost last summer as well as an estimated $11.5 million in economic activity estimates Pyle.
The backfilling of these vacant corrections’ facilities comes as local jurisdictions including Los Angeles have had to shoulder the burden of the court mandated transfer or release of thousands of prisoners that have impacted local jails that are now overflowing – including Fresno.
The state prison population peaked at 173,000 in 2006 but saw a gradual decrease to 163,000 in late 2010. Even so, California penal institutions were operating at 175% of their design capacity. Poor health care delivery prompted the U. S. Supreme Court to order the transfer or release of more than 30,000 prisoners within two years. Now,Governor Brown’s realignment of the criminal justice system has accelerated the prison population’s decrease.
In response to the Supreme Court mandate, California now sends many lower-level offenders to local custody instead of to state prison. Since the advent of realignment on October 1, 2011, the total in-custody prison population has fallen by 12%, from 161,000 to 141,000 at the end of February 2012.
If the pressure is on at local jails like LA and Fresno – some places like Coalinga and Avenal in western Kings County have seen a decline in city income because of the loss in state funding and correctional jobs.
Avenal city administrator Steve Sopp says in the past three years the state prison population in town has declined from 7500 to 4500 with losses to the city of revenue and jobs.
If the inmates are not in state prison they are now in overcrowded local jails with officials like Fresno police chief Jerry Dyer having to handle the spillover into the streets and an increase in crime.
This summer Fresno reported an increase of 50% in homicides with Dyer pointing in interviews to a failing criminal justice system and bad economy as contributing factors.
A recent news report said” The Fresno County jail’s door has swung open again. Just days after opening a new floor of the jail, the sheriff’s office has started releasing inmates again because the place is too full.”
Back in Coalinga, city manager Pyle says the city expects up front funding from LA County to upgrade the Coalinga facility to handle more inmates.
LA County has offered Taft nearly $500,000 at the outset of the contract to pay start-up expenses says Pyle.LA county is now paying $112.84 per day to house the inmates that will cost them $61 per day in Taft.