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State to shut down a portion of the California Men’s Colony

December 6, 2022

By KAREN VELIE

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDRC) announced plans on Tuesday to close the California Men’s Colony West Facility, with the exception of Facility M.

The closure is the result of attrition and the progressive decline in the inmate population. While an exact date when the state will begin transferring inmates and closing housing units has not been identified, portions of the West Facility are scheduled to be closed by Dec. 2023.

It is anticipated the closure will impact the employment of 300 to 500 people. The CDCR will offer some employees an option to transfer both within and outside of impacted counties.

As outlined in its 2022-23 budget with an eye toward fiscal responsibility, CDCR is closing Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, ceasing operation of another leased facility operating as California City Correctional Facility, and deactivating some facilities at six prisons.


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Anybody remember when Tim Leary “escaped” from the west facility? That place has history! Too bad it’s not the east closing.


-8

Re-purpose for a manufacturing center that will hire qualified homeless. The unqualified do not need to sleep in the streets, they can voluntarily be detained until qualified too.


-5

“they can voluntarily be detained until qualified”


So camps doing forced labor with the “voluntarily detained” homeless on the grounds of state prison?


WTF, perhaps a sign at the entrance “Arbeit macht frei”?


-4

Yes, While They’re Freezing, they can choose the comfort of indoors, food and a bed. Get off of their meds and learn a skillset to accommodate the manufacturing job availability at that location. Vagrancy laws can then be exercised in SLO County because there is an option to not be unhoused (for the moment). Then again maybe there can be a under utilized housing program so that generous people can bring in unhoused people and get a property tax exemption to offset their living situation.


-1

Why detain the homeless? Just make it into low-cost housing.


-1

The state spent billions of tax payer dollars building Chuckwalla , Susanville etc etc in recent decades …I can understand shutting down prisons like Tracy or Old Folsom that were built in early 1900s .In Ione, Ca is Mule Creek Prison it is a modern built prison ,2 miles away is a Juvenille facility that was built in early 1900s, it was shutdown a long time ago and has sat vacant for many many decades . Chuckwalla is a modern prison that could be converted into use as a state mental hospital with minimum expense of tax payer dollars .I wonder if its possible to use CMC West as a homeless shelter ?? I hope at minimum that Chuckawalla will be leased or sold to a private prison or private mental hospital corporation .California still sends a large portion of inmates to other states where corporations own private prisons , California taxpayers pay those out of state private prison housing costs , which on the flip side gives the appearance to the judicial system that California is complying with judicial mandates to lower California prison inmate populations due to overcrowding and understaffing …CDCR is having a major problem finding employable people , same as all law enforcement , in present tense law enforcement has a very high percentage of short staffing statewide


28

With crime at an all time high in CA how is this possible?…. how is it possible for them to close part of a prison?…


48

Google crimes rates over time in California. Crime has been on a steady decline since 1980.


-51

Violent crime in California peaked in 1992, and according to the state DOJ, crime rates across the board increased significantly since 2020.


5

You’re thinking that if a crime is committed someone goes to jail. That’s not the case, it appears they’re rarely even prosecuted.


29

Just look up the crime rates over last 5 yrs in the large cities and see what party has been in control all that time and then get back with info for readers


16