New Effort to Put Prison in Castaic Goads Foes to Redouble Lobbying

Leaders of a group opposed to putting a state prison in the Santa Clarita Valley said Thursday that they will step up their lobbying in response to a renewed effort by legislators to put the prison in Castaic.

Jim Scott, co-chairman of Citizens for Fair Prison Sites, said he does not believe that the latest plan, unveiled Wednesday by former Assemblywoman Gloria Molina (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista), will be successful.

But “we have to take it seriously or we could end up with the prison in our backyard,” he said, vowing that committee members will immediately contact legislators to urge rejection of the Castaic site.

Molina and Peace announced their plan, which they said was an attempt to end the stalemate over location of a state prison in Los Angeles County, on Molina’s last day in office. Thursday, she took a seat on the Los Angeles City Council.

County Jail Land

Peace said he will take over the authorship of a bill introduced a year ago by Molina. The bill calls for locating the prison on Los Angeles County-owned land at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho, a county jail with more than 5,000 inmates.

Assemblywoman Cathy Wright (R-Simi Valley), who represents the Santa Clarita Valley, predicted that a compromise on the prison site will be reached in the state Senate before the Assembly has time to act.

The Senate bill, she said, probably will require that two prisons be built in the county--one in downtown Los Angeles, the other in a rural area. Sites near Gorman, Lancaster and Palmdale have been mentioned, besides to the Castaic one, Wright said.

Assembly Will OK Choice

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) has said repeatedly that the decision lies with the Senate and that the Assembly will rubber-stamp whichever site or sites that house chooses.

Nevertheless, Scott and Robin Geissler, the other co-chairman of the anti-prison group, said they will contact key Assembly members, as well as state senators.

A 1982 law does not permit nearly completed prisons in Stockton and San Diego to open until the Legislature agrees on a prison site in Los Angeles County. The San Diego-area prison is in Peace’s district.