Council Drops Support for Prison Center in Lancaster : Corrections: Opposition for a second facility in the community mounts after last week’s escape of a convicted killer from the 8-month-old state penitentiary.

After listening to a hostile crowd for more than an hour Saturday, members of the City Council publicly reaffirmed that they are dropping their support for a proposed state prison reception center in the community.

All five councilmen acknowledged that the climate of anger and fear resulting from the breakout of a convicted murderer Tuesday from the 8-month-old state prison in Lancaster precluded any further consideration of building the new facility near the prison.

The proposed reception center would have held convicts for no more than 90 days before distribution to prisons.

Two council members suggested during the debate putting the proposal for the center on the ballot.

But later, conceding that the proposal is dead for now, Mayor Arnie Rodio said he does not think a public vote is necessary.

“I feel I can go out to the community and get their input,” Rodio said. “The input now is not in favor of it. People are afraid.”

Rodio said he has received hundreds of phone calls, all opposing a new facility.

Even before Saturday’s hearing, scheduled prior to the breakout, several council members had told The Times they foresaw severe opposition and would probably have to back away from the proposal, which enjoyed widespread support from the city’s business community.

True to their expectations, nearly 100 residents attended the meeting to castigate the council and state corrections officials for failing to notify local law enforcement until more than two hours after the escape of 23-year-old Eric Renee Johnson, a high-security prisoner serving a life sentence.

“A murderer who was escaping from their prison, desperate and capable of violence was loose on our streets while we slept,” said the first speaker, Donna M. Reed. “And the prison officials didn’t feel it was necessary to notify the local sheriff or authorities.”

Reed said she had not opposed the prison, but “if I had known just how political, corrupt and devious these officials would be, I would have fought this facility with everything within my ability.”

Reed, who later repeatedly interrupted the council members’ statements, was eventually escorted from the chambers by a sheriff’s deputy.

But 18 of the 19 speakers who followed her echoed her accusations of betrayal.

“They were planning to sweep it under the carpet,” said Steve Fisk, a Los Angeles Police Department detective. “These people have no accountability to the community.”

Fisk said he didn’t think the public was aware of the dangerousness of inmates in the prison.

“We’re dealing with the Charlie Mansons, with the Richard Ramirezes,” he said. “I’m here to tell you, you cannot remotely connect yourself with the way these people think.”

Although the city fought vigorously to block construction of the 4,200-inmate prison in Lancaster, Councilman Henry W. Hearns said he led his colleagues in a rapprochement with the state after the fight was lost. In the resulting climate of good-neighborliness, Hearns said, state corrections officials suggested placing a reception center near the prison, and the council saw the idea as a possible boost to the local economy.

Informal consultations with the business community were favorable, Hearns said.

However, the audience at City Hall on Saturday was hardly receptive to such distinctions. In fact, one speaker argued that the reception center would bring worse prisoners to Lancaster.

Danielle Marvin Lewis, a real estate agent and chairwoman of the former Antelope Valley Prison Committee that fought the Lancaster prison for seven years, reasoned that the most dangerous prisoners are more costly to transport and, therefore, corrections officials would want to assign them near the reception center to save money.

“We’re going to have the worst of the worst,” Lewis said, evoking shouts of agreement from the audience.

As a secondary consequence of Saturday’s hearing, the City Council may also re-evaluate its participation in a program to employ prison inmates for road and park work.

Several speakers lambasted the plan, raising fears that it will loose pedophiles in the community and provide an opportunity for drug drops to inmates.

In light of the comments, Mayor Rodio asked to have the plan, which he said is nearing implementation, placed on a future council agenda for reconsideration.