Local News in Brief : Carson Doesn’t Want a Prison
Carson just said no to a minimum-security prison.
The 200-bed facility for parole violators, which the state Department of Corrections had hoped to put on a site surrounded on three sides by oil refineries, will not be coming to town.
Corrections spokesman Mike Van Winkle said protests by Mayor Kay Calas, other council members and Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Hawthorne) were the reason the department is no longer considering Carson.
“We strive to be a good neighbor,” Van Winkle said. “We don’t want to locate in a neighborhood that doesn’t want us.”
Calas said she spent several days last week chastising state officials in blunt language for including Carson among potential prison sites.
City officials sensitive about Carson’s image have long complained that it shoulders too much of the burden of other cities and agencies. The municipality houses refineries, a large sewage treatment plant and closed landfills. In addition, it is crisscrossed by freeways and rail tracks.
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