State High Court Rejects Challenge to L.A. Prison

The final legal hurdle to construction of a prison southeast of the Los Angeles Civic Center was cleared Wednesday when the state Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the state’s environmental review of the facility.

The seven justices unanimously declined to consider a charge by Los Angeles city officials that the 20-acre prison site is tainted with contaminated soil and polluted ground water.

But community activists, who fought the prison on the grounds that it would harm Eastside neighborhoods, pledged to block construction by persuading lawmakers to remove its funding from the state budget.

No explanation of the decision was given in the court’s one-sentence order, although the justices have a record of turning down many challenges to development lodged on the basis of the California Environmental Quality Act.

“This is the end of the line for legal appeals,” said Terry Kelly, an attorney for Mothers of East Los Angeles, one of several community groups that have fought the prison for more than seven years. “Of course we are disappointed. This is a part of the community that already has more than its share of prisons.”

The Sybil Brand Jail for women and the men’s Central Jail are operated by the county near downtown Los Angeles.

State Department of Corrections officials immediately announced that it would proceed as soon as possible with plans to build the 1,450-bed prison at Olympic Boulevard and Santa Fe Avenue, next to the Santa Monica Freeway.

“This was the final hurdle and it has been removed,” said Solange Brooks, a department spokeswoman. “We do have the funding for the project and we hope to award the bids in the near future.”

The exact construction timeline remains unclear, Brooks said.

Efforts have already begun in Sacramento to divert money from the Los Angeles prison to other projects. In May, a legislative budget committee voted to transfer $115 million set aside for the prison to another prison project in the San Joaquin Valley city of Madera.

“In this time of economic hardship it is just foolhardy to proceed with a prison,” said Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles). “There is just not going to be enough money to fund operation of these prisons. Where are we going to find money to pay all the guards and their pension plans and for food and electricity?”

But Gov. Pete Wilson is likely to veto any attempt to remove funding for the prison, a spokesman said.

Corrections officials have argued that the prison is desperately needed to help relieve overcrowding at other state facilities that are operating at 80% over capacity.

They also are eager to begin work on the prison because a state law requires that construction begin before a 2,200-bed prison in Lancaster can open.

Los Angeles officials challenged the environmental review. The report was upheld by a Superior Court judge and an appellate court, setting up the appeal to the Supreme Court.