Lawyers Admit They Won’t Be Able to Block Lancaster Prison

Lawyers preparing for the second round of a legal battle against a proposed state prison in Lancaster conceded Monday that they have no chance of stopping the prison at a court hearing this week.

An attorney for Lancaster said lawyers are dropping their strongest remaining argument: A challenge to the constitutionality of 1987 legislation that calls for the 2,200-bed facility to be built in the western part of the desert city.

“When we looked carefully at the law and previous cases, we just did not feel the constitutionality argument had merit,” said lawyer David Mann. “We are looking this week not so much at stopping the prison as at mitigating the impact of the prison, making it a lower-intensity prison that will be more palatable to the community.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Wednesday will hear arguments in the second part of a lawsuit filed by Lancaster and Los Angeles County. In a hearing last month, a judge rejected challenges to the state’s environmental review of the 252-acre prison site.

The city and county have appealed the ruling. Mann said the last chance for prison opponents to block construction will be a hearing on the appeal in the spring.