Front Page  »  

State to layoff more than 300 California Men’s Colony staffers

February 9, 2023

By KAREN VELIE

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDRC) plans to layoff more than 300 San Luis Obispo County employees as it closes most of California Men’s Colony West Facility, according to an email from a union representative.

The state plans to cut 250 correctional officer, 23 sergeants, nine lieutenants, two captains, two correctional counselors and one associate warden. Of those, it is anticipated 90 will retire early and the others will transfer to facilities located outside the county.

As a result, the county will lose more than $30 million in salaries.

In addition, the CDRC is planning to eliminate dozens of support staff positions including maintenance workers, kitchen crews and medical staffers.

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.

Many union workers are starting to jump ship, applying for positions at other state prisons.

Sign up for breaking news, alerts and updates with Cal Coast News Top Stories.


Loading...
Subjects:
Related:


23 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. That approach to fighting crime obviously does not work.


-4

When you layoff the prisoners then it is safe to assume that the staff will be next. I’m surprised the staff union didn’t object to the releases but then again there will be replacements after we re-establish law and order.


9

Violent crime is going up and the state is firing prison staff?….


7

Improving healthcare and education in America will greatly reduce crime. Slowly, but surely. And our prison industrial complex has gotten out of hand. In fact, it’s criminal.


-13

The tax and spend republicans would rather keep building prisons and paying those salaries to house nonviolent offenders than save money by investing in education and job training. It’s guaranteed employment for the republican law enforcement machine when you refuse to educate the populace.


-57

Where you come up with that false statement? Almost all unions vote for Dem’s (which I could never figure out ) Also it seems the existing Dem government wants to tax the $600 items you sold and is hiring 87,000 new inforcers to make sure they get it. Dem’s need to raise the debt limit to cover all the unnecessary spending they are doing.You are not going to educate and job train most of the people in prison as the way of life for most of them will always be crime . Sorry for the real truth


43

What unions? Only about 11% of Americans belong to unions.


As for the $600 worth of gig money you may have earned, the rules are confusing and I would be surprised if the IRS backs up that law without reconsideration. The 87,000 new agents are needed to make sure our wealthy brethren are paying their fair share—it takes far more staff to analyze the convoluted returns of somewhat like Trump who has an army of accountants preparing them.


Do you know that the very richest Americans pay less of a percentage of their wealth in federal income tax than you and me. In fact, in 2007, Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the U.S., paid ZERO taxes during a time when his fortune increased by nearly $4 billion.


I just never understood why conservative Americans were against unions (which many have argued were the driving force of American prosperity between 1945 and 1980 when the gap between rich and poor was far less than it is now) and against taxing the wealthy. I guess it must have to do with the social issues the Republicans always drag into the argument. If the middle and working classes worked together to make sure the tax code was fair, we would not have many of the problems we currently have.


-20

Crime is rampant and prisons are closing, something is really wrong with this picture?


79

“Rampant” seems a bit strong. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, violent crime is up about 6% to 466 incidents per 100,000 residents. These rates have remained relatively flat for the last few decades, with huge drops between the early 90’s and today. In 1992 there were 1,115 violent crimes per 100,000. I’m sure you agree that violent criminals are the ones who should be locked up. Unless violent crime surges to 1992 rates, I think we’re safe to close down some of our prison facilities.


https://www.ppic.org/publication/crime-trends-in-california/


-53

Sorry, “deterent” not decent


10

I just loved the part that said “the progressive decline in prison population “- yes, the progressives said how do we fix the increase in prisoners? Clamp down on crime so we create a ddecent, uhhhhh, no let’s just stop putting so many in prison. DONE!!


38

You can thank the democrat party for decriminalization of crime and forcing county jails to act as prisons while closing prisons across the state and dumping criminals out in to streets.


88

Blame the democrats? Saving $30,000,000 sounds pretty good. Unless the tax and spend republicants want to just whine and throw more money at it.


-79

How about we legitimately throw the money at crime prevention instead of crime forgiving, then the prisons become less necessary.


15

Many republicans only believe in government savings if the money goes into their pockets.


-75

How does it go into their pockets Pelosi Biden and many other Dems are millionaires and not from their government paycheck figure that one out


24

so are the loser republicans.


-21

Yea save 30m to give to those here illegally free health care and food. Let’s just throw some more at the the homeless with no plan on how to use it or or accountability. Oh so many benefits to just decriminalize everything. Oh no tax cuts for any of the middle class…


38

So, It’s the “Illegally here” part? I understand. You’re against ANYONE breaking the law? I agree. if someone breaks the law, they should be tried and if convicted, face punishment. everything from shoplifting, to stealing classified documents. I guess we’re on the same side after all.


8

Not a good trade off when the Dem’s turn around and spend Trillions on a lot of unnecessary stuff say like 87,000 IRS thugs


12

It’s funny how Republican’s worry about money but never said a word against the gop IRAQ and Afghanistan destruction with America’s money. Now we want to make sure the people are paying taxes and government employees are thugs. does that go for ALL government employees like Police that are coming after our freedom? I can’t even speed through Atascadero now or someone enforcing the law will interfere. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-added-more-to-the-national-debt-than-obama-and-bush


-23

Steel less than $950 and the most you’ll get is a ticket, an infraction. Yup, the State Dems did that. They own it 100 percent.


5
1 2