Governor Tours Prison, Denies That Trip Is Campaign-Related

Gov. George Deukmejian, touring an overcrowded state prison here Monday, received a warm reception from local officials who want to expand the facility but was jeered by a few inmates as he walked through the prison yard.

After the tour, Deukmejian told reporters, “It’s very sad to see so many young people here in an institutional setting.”

Susanville was the first stop for Deukmejian on a two-day campaign-style swing through the northern part of the state.

Later in the day he met with cattle ranchers in Alturas and bottle-fed a fawn at a California Conservation Corps center near Yreka.

Deukmejian, the first governor to visit these parts in more than a decade, denied that this trip was motivated by his desire to win reelection in 1986.

“I wouldn’t characterize this as a campaign trip,” he said. “It’s important that the governor have a presence in these areas.”

Deukmejian, accompanied by three members of his cabinet and state prison director Daniel McCarthy, took a 30-minute tour of the Susanville correctional center, which houses 2,135 medium- and minimum-security prisoners. The prison was built to hold 1,324.

During the tour of the Correctional Center, Deukmejian and his entourage of state officials, television camera crews and reporters walked across a minimum-security prison yard and trooped through a dormitory where several inmates were sleeping.

Prisoners gathered at a distance in the yard to gawk at the group. Several yelled obscenities at the governor, which he appeared to ignore.

Deukmejian, who as a state legislator sponsored the strict “use a gun, go to prison” legislation, said hello to several inmates and talked briefly with one prisoner who wanted the governor to approve greater reductions of sentences for time spent working.

Deukmejian repeatedly has said that he is happy to see the state’s prisons so crowded because that means there are fewer criminals on the street.

After viewing the prisoners, however, he told reporters that he was saddened and that he favors continued financing for programs designed to prevent young people from turning to crime.

“I hate to see so many fine-looking young men . . . here behind bars,” Deukmejian said.

After the tour, Deukmejian met with community leaders who said they favor a proposal to expand the prison because it would boost the local economy.

The state has informally proposed adding 500 beds to the facility, but Mayor Helen Leve said the city would like to see 1,000 more.

“Our expansion program is not going as fast as we would like,” the governor told Leve. “We genuinely appreciate this kind of support.”

The Deukmejian Administration has embarked on a $1.2-billion plan to build new prisons and enlarge existing facilities in an attempt to cope with a prison system that is 60% over capacity.

Opposition from residents has blocked prison construction in the rural San Joaquin Valley city of Avenal and in the desert community of Blythe. Last week, Deukmejian called for the waiver of environmental reviews for prisons as a way of circumventing local opposition.

In Alturas, Deukmejian met with cattle ranchers to discuss the plight of their depressed economy.

Later he told reporters that although he generally supports President Reagan’s tax plan, he opposes a capital gains provision that would make it even tougher for the ranchers to survive.

At the California Conservation Corps center, Deukmejian fed the fawn, sawed a log and praised the work of corps members. In the evening, he was scheduled to attend a fund-raising event in Yreka.