Tehachapi Prison Gets First Inmates
Thirty-eight inmates arrived at the still-uncompleted Southern Maximum Security Complex here on Tuesday, the first top-security prison to be built in California in more than a century.
The 38 prisoners were the first of 126 inmates scheduled for immediate transfer to the new facility from the aging, violence-torn prison at Folsom, Department of Corrections officials said.
Folsom State Prison, built in 1878, was the last maximum-security institution built in the state. Construction on the Tehachapi prison began in June, 1983.
The Tehachapi facility will be occupied in phases as part of the Deukmejian Administration’s crash plan to ease crowding in the state’s 13-prison system, Corrections Director Daniel McCarthy said.
When fully operational early next year, the Tehachapi prison will include two 500-cell units. The $90-million complex is adjacent to the California Correctional Institution, a medium-security institution.
“We believe SMSC will help to take the pressure off the four prisons now housing maximum-security inmates,” McCarthy said.
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