Jubilant Santa Clarita Prison Foes to Toast Success of Unwelcome Mat

Santa Clarita Valley residents who organized last October to fight efforts to put a state prison in their neighborhood planned a victory celebration after receiving word Thursday that the state Assembly had voted overwhelmingly to build the prison in downtown Los Angeles.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Robin Geissler, founder of the 150-member Citizens for Fair Prison Sites. “It’s been a long, uphill battle.”

‘People Can Win’

“Thank goodness, this has shown that the people can win,” said Joanne Darcy, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s field deputy and a longtime resident of the area.

Geissler, Darcy and others praised Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) for publicly announcing earlier this week that he favored the downtown site, despite a last-minute attempt by Democratic Assemblywoman Gloria Molina to put the prison in Castaic. Molina represents the area of Los Angeles where the prison will go.

“Brown stepped forward and did what was fair and right,” Geissler said. “My faith in the political process has been restored.”

Brown’s action broke a deadlock over the plan for the downtown prison, which was favored by Gov. George Deukmejian. The final vote in the Assembly was 60 to 16. The measure’s sponsors say they have enough support in the Senate to send it to the governor.

Geissler said the prison belongs in downtown Los Angeles near public transportation, county hospitals and the courts, not in an outlying residential community such as the Santa Clarita Valley.

“It’s an industrial area, not a residential area,” she said of the Los Angeles site.

The Saugus housewife and mother said she wants to “thank my wonderful neighbors” for their help in defeating the prison.

“No one can match our commitment,” Geissler said.

She said she now will work with residents who are trying to form a city to include five unincorporated communities in the area. The Santa Clarita Valley needs local government representatives who will fight efforts to put prisons and toxic waste dumps in the community, Geissler said.

‘Overjoyed’ by Action

Jim Scott, co-chairman of the citizens committee, said he, too, is “overjoyed” by the Assembly vote. However, he predicted that the state Department of Corrections will try to put a second prison in Los Angeles County in three to five years.

“They’ll be back,” he said. “We’d better be ready for them.”

Scott and Geissler said the anti-prison group will throw a party sometime next week to celebrate its victory.