High Court Lets State Build Lancaster Prison
The state Supreme Court has lifted a 19-month legal cloud over the state’s planned 2,200-bed prison in Lancaster, refusing to hear a final appeal and environmental challenge by Los Angeles County officials who sought to block the project.
The decision, issued Wednesday without comment, allows the state Department of Corrections to continue building the $200-million-plus facility at the northeast corner of Avenue J and 60th Street West. The first inmates are scheduled to be moved there in October, 1992.
The county, which owned the site before the state seized it, filed suit with the city of Lancaster in January, 1990, to scuttle the project. But its arguments were rejected at both lower court levels. Lancaster then dropped out, but the county pressed its case to the high court.
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