Bill Clears Roadblock to Otay Mesa Prison

The new state prison on Otay Mesa could open within 10 days after Gov. George Deukmejian signs legislation approved Thursday naming the locations of two new lockups in Los Angeles County, according to John Ratelle, superintendent of the medium-security prison in San Diego.

The prison’s 2,200 beds could be full by late August or September, Ratelle said.

The prison, known officially as the Robert J. Donovan Correctional Facility at Rock Mountain, could have been partly opened as early as last November had a long political stalemate here not blocked use of the penitentiary.

The Assembly on Thursday approved a bill by Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside) that permits construction of two prisons in Los Angeles County--one near downtown Los Angeles and the other in Antelope Valley. Such legislation, which now goes to the governor for his signature, is required under current law before the San Diego area prison and another in Stockton can open.

Governor Backed Compromise

Deukmejian had taken no public position on Presley’s bill before Thursday’s Assembly floor session, but his top aides were lobbying heavily for its passage. The governor also agreed to a last-minute compromise that won over the votes needed for approval of the measure.

A Deukmejian spokesman said after the measure was passed that the governor intends to sign the bill within the next day or two.

Ratelle said he is waiting for the go-ahead from Corrections Department officials in Sacramento before putting in action his plan to open the prison. When he receives the word, Ratelle said, he will “get on the phone” immediately and begin calling prison guards and other workers who have been assigned to San Diego but have been working at other prisons throughout the state.

“This is great,” Ratelle said. “This is what we’ve been waiting on.”

Ratelle said the 311 correctional officers assigned to the prison will first undergo five days of training in prison procedures and operations, including everything from feeding inmates to dealing with an escape.

After training is completed, the prison will go through a dress rehearsal of sorts, Ratelle said.

“We’ll put everybody at their posts and start getting into the housing units,” he said. “We’ll be working the doors, finding the glitches so the contractor can get them fixed before we get the inmates.”

The prison, which sits between O’Neal and Johnson canyons about two miles north of the international border, will open with 250 inmates, then add another 250 prisoners each week until two of the prison’s four 500-cell units are full.

20 Buildings

Ratelle said the final two units are due to be occupied in mid-August, after prison officials complete a final walk-through with representatives of the building contractor. Two 96-bed dormitories for minimum-security prisoners also are scheduled to be finished at that time.

Of the prison’s industries, at which inmates will be able to work to deduct time off their sentences, the license plate factory and optical lab are due to be finished in August, while the textile mill is scheduled to open in October.

When the prison is complete, it will include 20 separate 100-cell buildings gathered in groups of five, with each 500-cell unit having its own dining room, clinic and recreation yard. The entire prison will be surrounded by two 14-foot-high fences topped with razor-edged wire. Twelve gun towers, spaced at intervals of 700 feet, will be in operation 24 hours a day.

Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista), who proposed the legislative provision linking the opening of the San Diego prison to the naming of at least one site in Los Angeles, said he did not foresee then that the Legislature would take nearly two years to agree on a Los Angeles location.

Without that linkage, Peace added, the San Diego prison might have opened a few months earlier, but the state probably would still be without a Los Angeles location. Los Angeles County contributes nearly 40% of the state’s inmates but has no prison of its own.

“If the Legislature hadn’t had the foresight two years ago, when there was less political pressure, to provide that linkage language, we would not have had the political will to act today,” Peace said.

Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego), who coordinated Republican votes for the compromise Thursday, agreed that the delay in opening the San Diego prison was worth the wait.

“In the long scope of events, taking eight months to overcome Los Angeles’ 100-year opposition to prisons is an incredible political feat,” Stirling said.