1st Private State Prison Planned for Santa Clarita

A Nevada company has announced that it hopes to build a private prison for state and federal inmates on 492 acres it has acquired near the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho in the Santa Clarita Valley.

But a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections said the Reno-based Mills Jennings Co. has not contacted the state about such plans.

California has no private prisons, and opening one would require an act of the Legislature, spokesman Bob Gore said.

Moreover, the company has had no experience in building private prisons, and David Smith, company chairman, said Friday that Mills Jennings is open to using the land for other purposes.

Acquired Thursday

“We’re expecting that there will be quite a few obstacles prior to the development, and the property doesn’t have to be developed in this fashion,” Smith said.

Smith said Mills Jennings acquired the site for about $10 million in stock and bonds on Thursday. He refused to identify the seller and said the site was north of Magic Mountain and about a mile south of the honor ranch, a Los Angeles County jail in Saugus.

Company officials envision a minimum-security private prison that would contract with state and federal authorities to hold inmates, Smith said. He said the company picked the site because it is close to Los Angeles but is still far away from residents who “may be concerned about having a facility in their back yard.”

Smith also said that the project is just in the conceptual stage and that a feasibility study for a prison might be started in three or four months.

Smith said Mills Jennings is involved in several manufacturing and food-processing ventures and also makes slot machines. “This is our first move in that direction,” Smith said of a prison.

He said Mills Jennings is negotiating with a Florida firm to develop the site as a prison. He declined to identify the company but said it has developed private prisons in other states.

Gore said that while California does not have private prisons, it does contract with firms to operate correctional facilities such as halfway houses and “return-to-custody centers” that hold parole violators for six to 12 months.

Legislation Required

A prison, however, would require legislation to resolve a variety of legal and liability issues, he said.

Gore also said Mills Jennings had not told the state about its plans. “They have never spoken with us,” he said.

Any proposal to build a prison would be sure to face opposition in the Santa Clarita Valley, where in recent years residents have fought plans to build a state prison near Castaic and a private prison for parole violators in the mountains above Saugus.

A bill that would have placed a state prison in the Santa Clarita Valley was defeated in the state Legislature. The private prison proposal was withdrawn.