June 7, 2011 | 9:36 AM | By

Central Valley towns angry over emptying private and locally owned prisons

FILED UNDER: Corrections, California Correctional Peace Officers Association, Private Prisons

In 1986, California signed its first modern contract with a private prison company, opening a Community Correctional Facility called Hidden Valley Ranch in La Honda. Over the next two decades, the CCF project expanded, and there are currently at least nine CCFs in the state, generally housing low-level state prisoners. The CCFs represent private prison companies’ greatest inroad into California’s correctional scene to date. While state like Texas and Florida, other states with large prison populations have embraced private facilities, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association has consistently opposed any kind of privatization, keeping their role in the state minimal. Now, CCFs–both private and locally owned–are reportedly closing around the state. The Bakersfield Californian took on the issue in a recent piece:

California has a huge prisoner surplus. Meanwhile, the state is shedding low-cost inmate beds.

Huh?

“It just doesn’t make sense,” said Delano City Manager Abdel Salem.

Some 594 beds at the city-owned Delano Community Correctional Facility are headed for mothballs when a state contract ends in August. About 87 workers will be laid off, worsening the city’s 38 percent unemployment rate.

Other Central Valley communities also face closures and layoffs as similar facilities are shuttered as part of the governor’s realignment plan.

The piece goes on to report closures or rumored closures of several other facilities around the state. The city of Delano has hired former State Senator Richard Polanco to lobby their case in Sacramento. While in the Senate, Polanco was a consistent advocate for bringing private prisons into California, particularly CCFs.