Effort in Senate to Scuttle Governor’s Prison Plan Fails

SACRAMENTO — The Senate on Thursday turned back an effort to scuttle Gov. George Deukmejian’s controversial plan to build a prison near Los Angeles’ heavily Latino Eastside.

At the same time, however, the governor’s Democratic foes succeeded in pushing through two amendments to a “compromise” prison bill that could delay the Eastside prison while virtually assuring that a second penitentiary is built in a largely Republican and rapidly urbanizing area around Lancaster.

The amendments were met with bitter opposition from Republicans, who now are threatening to oppose the prison bill in its entirety when it comes up for a vote on the Senate floor next week.

Contending that Sen. President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) broke promises made during recent negotiating sessions, GOP Floor Leader Ken Maddy of Fresno complained that “most of the items we agreed on all have been changed.”

‘Time Wasted’

“We’ve wasted a lot of time here,” Maddy told Roberti. “If (these amendments) pass, we can’t vote for the bill.”

But Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside), the author of the prison bill, called the amended bill “workable” and added: “We’ve absolutely come as close as we can get. Hopefully this will get through the Senate, go to the Assembly and the governor will sign it.”

It was clear from the debate’s tone that the Senate is growing tired of the dispute, which has held up a decision on where to place a prison in Los Angeles County for 22 months.

Pressure has been growing, in large part, because state law prevents two newly built prisons in San Diego and Stockton from opening until at least one prison is authorized in Los Angeles County. Corrections officials estimate that the delay is costing the state as much as $700,000 monthly.

As dozens of Eastside residents watched from the gallery above, the Senate debated and defeated nearly a dozen amendments to the prison legislation, mostly offered by Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), the proposal’s most vocal critic.

Surplus Ships

One of the amendments would have eliminated new prisons altogether, instead housing inmates on surplus ships anchored off Terminal Island. That amendment was soundly defeated by a vote of 6 to 26, as were most of Torres’ amendments.

Torres was successful in pushing through one amendment that would prevent the Deukmejian Administration from appealing an anti-prison lawsuit directly to the state Supreme Court. Deukmejian sought the authority for a direct Supreme Court appeal in hopes of cutting short opponents’ ability to use the court system to delay construction of the Eastside prison.

The amendment was approved on a narrow 19-16 vote after Roberti joined in the effort and Torres declared, “This would take from us a basic constitutional right that, by God’s name, we should have.”

After all the votes, however, the bill emerged largely intact.

Even so, Republicans were particularly angry over a Roberti amendment, approved on a 20-15 vote, which assures construction of a second prison near Lancaster.

Originally the bill specified the second prison near the existing Mira Loma Jail in the desert west of Lancaster. The measure specified that if the Mira Loma site turned out to be impractical, the Department of Corrections could select another site in a 350-square-mile area extending into unpopulated areas far away from the growing neighborhoods of Lancaster.

Area Narrowed

The Roberti amendment, however, narrowed the area to about 200 square miles that include nearly all of Lancaster and parts of Palmdale as well.

Sen. Newton Russell (R-Glendale), who represents the district, strongly suggested that Roberti came up with the amendment in hopes of drawing a gubernatorial veto.

“I understand what Roberti wants,” Russell said. “If he can cause enough pain to Republicans to get the governor to veto the bill, then we’re OK.”

But Roberti argued that he wants the same treatment for communities surrounding the Lancaster area prison as was afforded by Deukmejian to the neighborhoods near the Eastside prison site.

“If it’s good for East Los Angeles,” Roberti declared, “then it ought to be true for Lancaster.”

Two years ago, the Senate, with the support of Roberti and Torres, voted unanimously to approve construction of a prison on the Eastside location, about two miles southeast of the Civic Center near Boyle Heights. Last year, however, the Senate reversed itself and rejected the governor’s plan amid growing opposition from Eastside community activists.

Tired of Fight

Until now, Roberti has been able to block the Eastside prison. But on Thursday, it was clear from his votes that even he had grown tired of the fight.

Except for the two amendments that passed, Roberti failed to back Torres on most of his proposals Thursday, adding his vote in several cases only when it was clear that those proposals would fail.

Later, however, Torres said he considered the outcome a victory because the Senate delayed a vote on the bill.

“A delay is always a victory for us,” he said.

Although Maddy said Republicans are likely to oppose the prison bill when it comes up for a vote next week, another highly placed Republican source confided that “it would be politically tough” for Republicans to vote against a prison-building measure.