Democrats Push a 2-Prison Compromise

After months of posturing but little progress, Democratic leaders of the Senate unveiled legislation Tuesday that would authorize construction of two state prisons in Los Angeles County.

The measure, hammered out in a late Monday night meeting between Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti of Los Angeles and other top Senate Democrats, is aimed at breaking a two-year deadlock that has prevented Gov. George Deukmejian from carrying out his plan to build a prison on Los Angeles’ heavily Latino and Democratic Eastside.

The measure would allow a “scaled-down” prison to be built on the governor’s preferred site. But in what Roberti has called an effort at fairness, the bill would require a second prison in an unspecified rural, and most likely Republican, area of the county.

The legislation was amended Tuesday into an existing bill during a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is expected to call for a vote on the full bill as early as next week.

While some committee members who oppose the governor’s plan were critical of this bill as well, there were strong signals that it may lead to a compromise acceptable to the Deukmejian Administration. Patrick Kenady, the Department of Corrections official in charge of negotiating with lawmakers, told the committee that “we do see some glimmer of light on a subject that was formerly in the dark.”

In a press conference earlier in the day, Deukmejian refused to comment on the legislation, saying he had not seen a copy of the proposal. But he made it clear that he would not agree to any plan that could delay construction of a 1,700-bed, medium-security facility on his preferred Eastside site, about two miles southeast of the Civic Center.

The compromise measure, being carried by Roberti and Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside), is the first concrete proposal offered in the prison debate since the Senate last year scuttled Deukmejian’s plan, partly in response to heated opposition from Eastside community activists.

But the proposal stops short of earlier promises by Roberti to name at least three specific prison sites in the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys. Doing so at this time would have been sure to generate additional opposition from residents and lawmakers in those areas.

The legislation would allow the Department of Corrections to decide where that rural prison would go and would bar the new Eastside prison from opening until that decision is made.

An analysis of the bill by the Judiciary Committee’s staff mentioned at least three rural sites as having been evaluated for a prison in recent years. These sites include property in Castaic, near Edwards Air Force Base in Lancaster and adjacent to Highway 14 near Agua Dulce. The measure specifically exempts land in the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy from consideration.

Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), who represents part of the northeast rural area, did not comment on the plan, but repeatedly referred to the proposal as the “Republican prison” during the committee’s deliberations.

Although Administration officials seemed somewhat conciliatory toward the compromise plan, Roberti’s legislation is likely to face trouble on several fronts.

The Democratic measure calls for a 1,200-bed prison, somewhat smaller than the one Deukmejian wants for the Eastside site. The size was scaled down partly in recognition of difficulties that the state may have in obtaining all the land that is needed.

Landowner’s Warning

Owners of the major properties needed for the prison have already indicated that they are not willing sellers and would wage a court fight against condemnation. Llewellyn C. Werner, chairman of Crown Coach International, which is in the process of selling a key parcel of the Eastside site to a private developer, made it clear that he has no intention of cooperating with the state. “If you think you will take my property through eminent domain, you will have a fight on your hands,” Werner said.

What is likely to concern Deukmejian even more is the measure’s requirement for a full environmental impact report on both prison sites. These reports would include consideration of alternative locations elsewhere in the county--a search that Deukmejian has repeatedly rejected as too time-consuming.

The legislation, however, would resolve one of the governor’s most pressing problems by allowing two new prisons, in San Diego and near Stockton, to open. The two are unoccupied because of a 1982 law that bars their opening until a prison is authorized somewhere in Los Angeles County.

Eastside prison opponents, meanwhile, continued to voice their opposition to the governor’s plan as well as the compromise bill.

“We believe that once alternatives are looked at, cost-wise and with respect to the impact on the community and the local economy, this prison will never be sited” on the Eastside, said Father John Moretta, a vocal anti-prison activist.