Prison Site in Downtown L.A.

In response to your editorial (Aug. 7) and a similar column by state Sen. Art Torres (Commentary, Aug. 9), readers should recognize pleas for abandonment of plans to build a state prison near downtown Los Angeles as the classic NIMBY (not in my back yard) argument that has been voiced over the past five years.

The proposed abrogation of a good-faith agreement to build one prison on the downtown site and one in northern Los Angeles County, ratified by the Legislature in 1987, defies all logic and represents the breaking of faith with all of the residents of Los Angeles County.

The downtown site was favored by the Department of Corrections because it met all the criteria established by the department.

The property is close to the courts, transportation and health services and is accessible to staff and inmate families. All of the infrastructure is in place, saving the taxpayer millions of construction dollars, and the site is separated from the rest of the community by the Los Angeles River bed and a wide belt of industrially zoned property.

The 1987 decision was flawed only by that part of the agreement that led to the state’s confiscation of Los Angeles County land in the Antelope Valley for prison construction. This was done despite the fact that the land had been designated for needed county facilities and better sites in the Fifth District (my back yard) were available.

In good faith, no action should be taken to open the Lancaster prison, as stipulated in the agreement consummated by the Legislature, until construction is begun on the industrial site near downtown.

I strongly urge all responsible members of the executive branch and the Legislature to resist all efforts to violate agreements reached in good faith.

MICHAEL D. ANTONOVICH, Los Angeles County Supervisor