Panel Rejects Downtown L.A. as Prison Location, Opts for Saugus

Democrats on the Assembly Public Safety Committee, uniting against Republican Gov. George Deukmejian’s plan to build a state prison near downtown Los Angeles, voted Monday to locate the facility in a rural area north of Castaic.

The 4-2 vote, which fell along party lines, would place the 1,500-bed medium-security prison on Los Angeles County-owned property near the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho, a jail camp for county inmates. The measure authorizing the Castaic prison was sent to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee after its author, Assemblywoman Gloria Molina (D-Los Angeles), warned that a prison two miles southeast of the Civic Center and in her district would threaten nearby residents far more than a prison in a rural area.

Deukmejian’s plan, embodied in a bill by Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside) that was approved last year by the full Senate, was also on the committee’s agenda for a hearing. However, Presley, acknowledging that his measure lacked the support needed for approval, delayed a vote until Thursday.

The delay will give the Administration more time to try to work out an agreement with Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), who blocked the governor’s plan last September on the Assembly floor.

Presley appeared pessimistic about his chances, however, noting that the committee was signaling its opposition to a downtown prison by approving Molina’s bill.

“I may not have (the votes) on Thursday,” Presley said, “but I want to give it some more time.”

Regardless of what happens to Deukmejian’s proposal, Molina’s bill faces a rough time ahead. Although Molina said she has lined up support in the Senate, Democratic members of the upper house who supported Deukmejian’s plan last year may find it difficult to suddenly switch sides. Moreover, even if the bill is approved by both houses of the Legislature, it faces a likely veto by Deukmejian.

“I don’t know where this is going,” Molina acknowledged, adding that the fight over placing a prison in Los Angeles County has become a political “game.”

About 38% of the state’s prison population comes from Los Angeles County, but the county has no state prison. As a result, the Legislature has ordered that a prison be built in the county before any other new prison can be occupied in California.

The issue, already caught in a political tug of war between lawmakers who fear public reaction to a prison in their districts, became bogged down in gubernatorial politics earlier this year.

With Deukemejian leading the charge for the downtown prison, Democratic Mayor Tom Bradley, who is challenging Deukmejian for the governorship, came out in opposition to a downtown Los Angeles prison and instead offered an alternative near the Magic Mountain amusement park in Saugus.

The site, which earlier had been rejected as unsuitable by the state Department of Corrections, has found little support within the Legislature. However, Molina said Bradley supports her plan for a prison near Castaic, making it difficult for other Democrats to go along with the downtown prison during the election year. The Los Angeles City Council has also endorsed the Castaic site.

Expansion Planned

The Castaic site would be shared by the state prison and the county jail camp, which is scheduled to expand its facilities. Molina said that would save the taxpayers money.

Officials of the Department of Corrections said, however, that the only land left on the property for a state prison is either in a flood zone or plagued by earthquake faults.

“In my view it’s not a buildable site,” Steve Blankenship, a corrections spokesman, told the committee.

Molina countered that other prisons have been built in flood zones, including 105-year-old Folsom Prison, and that the Department of Corrections has simply refused to negotiate over any site other than the downtown location.

“We think this is a positive alternative that the Department of Corrections should have looked at,” she said.