L.A. County Prison: Now a 2nd Is Being Planned

State corrections officials, who have weathered more than two years of political flak over where to build a state prison in Los Angeles County, have thrown new fuel on the controversy by disclosing plans for a second prison even before ground is broken for the first.

Rodney Blonien, undersecretary of the state Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, said Thursday that plans for a second prison in Los Angeles County are in the “very preliminary discussion phase.”

Blonien revealed the plans Tuesday night at a sparsely attended meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Sacramento. At the time, Blonien was fighting off attempts by state Sen. Art Torres (D-South Pasadena) to scrap the department’s selection of the site for the first prison in Los Angeles County. That $115-million medium-security facility would be built near 12th Street and Santa Fe Avenue, southeast of the Civic Center.

According to Blonien and others who attended the hearing, Torres had charged that the site, which is in his district, was chosen over a location in the county’s Lancaster area simply because Supervisor Mike Antonovich is chairman of the state Republican Central Committee and has close ties to Republican Gov. George Deukmejian. Antonovich represents the Lancaster area, where prison officials had initially chosen--and then rejected--a site near Edwards Air Force Base.

Antonovich, who strongly opposed a state prison in his district, steered corrections officials to the downtown site that eventually was selected, Antonovich’s chief deputy, Kathleen Crow, said Thursday.

In denying that political considerations were involved in the selection of the downtown prison site, Blonien assured Torres on Tuesday night that when the state eventually builds a second prison in Los Angeles County, all areas will be considered, including Antonovich’s district.

A Judiciary Committee staffer said Blonien’s comments came as a surprise to the panel members, who had heard no previous public comment about a second prison planned for Los Angeles County.

“My God, there have been problems enough,” said Marilyn Riley, the committee’s consultant, referring to the political wrangling over selection of a site for the first prison.

The judiciary panel is considering legislation authored by state Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside) that would authorize construction of the Los Angeles County prison as well as additions to some existing prisons.

On Tuesday night, Torres introduced an amendment to Presley’s bill that would have barred use of the first Los Angeles site. The amendment would ban construction of any state prison within a 10-mile radius of any county or federal jail facility that houses more than 7,000 inmates--such as the Los Angeles County Jail.

The jail is within 10 miles of the downtown site prison officials selected after inspecting more 100 locations.

The site corrections officials selected is on land now owned by Crown Coach International, a school bus manufacturing firm. The state is continuing to negotiate to acquire the nearly 30 acres of downtown property, Blonien said Thursday.

The Torres amendment is virtually identical to a pending bill authored by Democratic Assemblywoman Gloria Molina, who also represents the area.

Corrections officials have defended the downtown site because of its proximity to the jail and the fact that it is more than a mile from any residential area. Molina and Torres object to the site because they contend it is too close to the jail and the residential neighborhood of Boyle Heights.

The Judiciary Committee delayed for at least a week consideration of Torres’ amendment--which received initial support from some panel members--after Blonien agreed to meet with Torres on Thursday to discuss why the downtown site was selected over other locations.

Blonien said in an interview after the meeting that the department has agreed to draft new language for the Presley prison authorization bill that could pave the way for new public hearings into the selection of the Crown Coach site.

Torres and Molina have criticized corrections officials for not adequately publicizing previous public hearings on the prison plan.

A Torres aide essentially confirmed Blonien’s account of Thursday’s meeting, but added that Torres will continue to insist that sites other than the downtown location be carefully considered.