Lancaster to house ‘sensitive needs’ inmates
Despite strong opposition from the city of Lancaster, state officials have decided to move forward with plans to convert a local prison reception center into a long-term facility to house hundreds of “sensitive needs” inmates, including sex offenders and former gang members.
Scott Kernan, undersecretary of operations for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said his agency had given “thoughtful consideration” to the city’s concerns. But the need to provide permanent and safe housing for a statewide backlog of 1,500 sensitive needs prisoners must take precedent, he said.
Beginning next month, the state will move inmates deemed at-risk living among the general prison population into the new accommodations, equipped to provide ongoing rehabilitative services.
Lancaster officials argue that the Antelope Valley is already home to some of the highest per-capita concentrations of parolees and juvenile probationers. They fear that establishing a long-term facility for inmates considered “the worst of the worst” would only attract their associates to the area.
They also worry that it could hurt the city’s efforts to curb crime, which last year saw an overall 10% drop.
Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said he was disappointed but not surprised by the state’s decision to put the welfare of inmates ahead of the community’s concerns.
“The Antelope Valley has been raped by the corrections department since the prison was built,” Parris said.
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