Saugus Prison Plan Fuels Angry Rally at Site

Strong resident protest over Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s proposal to locate a state prison in Saugus mounted Saturday as more than 350 Santa Clarita Valley residents staged a noisy morning rally at the site off Bouquet Canyon Road.

Carrying signs reading, “Save Our Valley from Bradley’s Prison” and “No Armed Camps in Our Backyard,” neighborhood leaders in the crowd vowed to begin letter-writing campaigns to state officials and to continue circulating petitions. They also plan to hold a community meeting on the issue Monday night at William S. Hart High School in Newhall.

“The No. 1 reason people move out here is to get away from the crime, the racket and the traffic in Los Angeles,” said Andrew Kenney, 28, of Saugus, who lives half a mile away from the site. “That prison would destroy our lives here. I have two little kids to protect.”

Young Couples, Children

The demonstrators, predominately young couples and children, were more organized than the crowd that gathered at the site with only a few minutes’ notice Thursday. That group protested as Bradley announced that he proposed to sell the 520-acre, city-owned parcel of land to the state for a prison.

The crowd was led with a loudspeaker in chants that included “L. A. not Bouquet” and “No prison, no prison.” Protesters also circulated petitions and distributed flyers titled “Eight Reasons Against Saugus Prison.” The handbills claimed that the site’s proximity to schools and neighborhoods made it unsuitable for a prison.

“People who live here are outraged over this,” said Lauri Brodie, 33, of Saugus. “Pressure is going to keep building until this is killed.”

Bradley’s proposal fueled the continuing debate over where to put a prison in Los Angeles County. In 1982, the Legislature approved a measure requiring the state to build a prison somewhere in the county.

Republican Gov. George Deukmejian has favored a prison site near downtown Los Angeles. A bill to locate the prison in an industrial area near 12th Street and Santa Fe Avenue downtown is expected to be considered by the Legislature in January. Bradley, who is expected to run for governor next year, has criticized Deukmejian for failing to build any new prisons.

The state had previously evaluated and rejected the vacant Saugus site, owned by the city since 1951, because it is too close to homes and within a mile of four schools.

At the protest rally, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) echoed statements they made earlier in the week, contending the proposal is part of Bradley’s political rivalry with Deukmejian.

“This is strictly a political game for Bradley,” Wright said. “This prison will never be built because the state has to decide and the state has already said, ‘No.’ ”