Senate OKs Prison Plan but Assembly Rejects It

On a near-straight party line vote, the state Senate late Friday approved a Democratic alternative to the controversial Los Angeles prison bill backed by Gov. George Deukmejian. But the Assembly rejected the measure, and the Republican governor made it clear even before the vote that he was in no mood to make any concessions and would veto it .

The action by the Senate, on a 22-11 vote, sent the measure to the Assembly where it immediately was rejected on an unusual 6-13 tally, setting the stage for continued negotiations next week when a two-house conference committee is expected to meet.

The measure would require the Deukmejian Administration to do a full environmental review of two prison sites in Los Angeles County as well as an industrial parcel in East Los Angeles that the Department of Corrections was ready to purchase.

Governor Stands Fast

However, the governor earlier in the day made it clear that he is unwilling to budge on the prison issue.

“There’s no excuse now to be looking at some other alternative,” Deukmejian said at a press conference held in the Los Angeles district of Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who has opposed Deukmejian’s plan to build the prison in East Los Angeles. “I’m not going to support any legislation that will further delay this process.”

In what has become an increasingly bitter exchange, the governor attacked the Democratic Senate leader for obstructing efforts to open new prisons. And Deukmejian threatened to campaign personally against a number of Democratic senators, including three who failed to vote for the Administration-backed prison measure: Rose Ann Vuich of Dinuba, Milton Marks of San Francisco and Leroy Greene of Carmichael. Of the three, only Greene faces reelection this year.

Earlier in the day, Roberti had some unkind words of his own for Deukmejian. He accused the Administration of choosing a prison site two miles southeast of the Civic Center because it expected little resistance from nearby residents, who are mostly Latino.

“They have found the Mexicans live somewhere and that’s where (the prison) is going to be,” Roberti said.

Both the Senate and the Assembly will remain in special session at least through Tuesday, more than two weeks after legislators originally were scheduled to adjourn.

Deukmejian, who called the special session, wanted approval of a measure by Assemblyman Jim Costa (D-Fresno), which would allow the state to purchase the East Los Angeles property near Boyle Heights.

Alternative Offered

But the Senate Democrats, after days of wrangling within their own ranks, offered an alternative proposal in response to complaints from the largely Latino neighborhoods that surround the East Los Angeles site. It was amended into the Costa bill. Only Sen. Wadie P. Deddeh (D-Chula Vista) broke ranks with his party and opposed the amended measure.

Assemblywoman Gloria Molina (D-Los Angeles), who has led the battle against building the prison in her district, pointed out at a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier in the day that 26 schools are located within two miles of the property.

And Roberti contended that the location of the schools could set the stage for a hostage situation if there were an escape from the facility, which would not open until 1991.

But Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside) argued that a number of prisons, including those at Folsom and Vacaville, are close to schools and that there has never been such a hostage situation in the history of the state Department of Corrections.

Thorny Issue

Finding a place for a prison in Los Angeles County has been a thorny issue for the Legislature for several years.

Pressured by legislators from other parts of the state who were tired of having prisons built in their areas when Los Angeles County had none, the Legislature in 1982 agreed to a statute that required work to begin on a Los Angeles prison before any other new prisons could be opened. The Legislature could change that requirement, but such a move would have to overcome strong feelings from lawmakers representing other parts of the state.

Two new prisons now under construction, in San Diego and near Stockton, are scheduled to begin receiving prisoners in the next two months. Neither could open unless the Legislature agrees on a site for a new prison in Los Angeles County. But the bill approved by the Senate on Friday would allow those prisons to open before a Los Angeles County site is chosen.

Deukmejian’s Democratic challenger on the November ballot, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who opposes the East Los Angeles site, has said Deukmejian could use his emergency powers to open the Stockton and San Diego prisons even if no Los Angeles County facility is begun.

But legislative counsel Bion Gregory told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Deukmejian could exercise those powers only if there were riots under way or the direct threat of riots existed. The fact that the prisons are overcrowded--at 170% of their capacity--is probably not enough, Gregory said.