U.S. Prison Agency Seeks Part of El Toro

As local officials argue over who should decide the future uses of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, the federal prison agency, Native American tribal councils and private companies have written the Navy to express interest in using part of the base once the 4,700-acre site is ready to be carved up.

With time running out for federal agencies to submit written requests to use areas of the base after it closes in 1999, the Bureau of Prisons has expressed interest in using base housing for a low-security federal correctional facility that could create 250 to more than 800 jobs with annual salaries averaging $32,000.

“It puts people to work. That’s the biggest thing,” said Kevin McMahon, a senior site specialist for the federal prison system. “There’s tremendous career potential for (employees) who would come into our system.”

Federal prison officials are scheduled to tour El Toro this week.

Other federal agencies that initially showed interest in base property included the National Archives and Records Administration, which is seeking warehouse space for storage of federal government records, and the Coast Guard, which considered using El Toro’s aviation facilities to consolidate operations of its seven helicopters and reconnaissance aircraft that are based in Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego.

However, Coast Guard Cmdr. Jim Dwyer said Monday that the agency has dropped the plan and will not be following up on its request.

Other groups, such as tribal organizations, have sent letters stating their interest in the property.

The Soboba Band of Mission Indians, a 700-member tribe based in San Jacinto, Calif., filed a letter of intent with the Navy Department seeking part of the land to become an economic force in the region. Tribal Administrator Wayne Allen said officials may be interested in developing a regional air cargo facility at El Toro.

The Indian Health Council, based in Santa Ysabel, Calif., stated in its letter that it has congressional funding to operate a drug treatment center for youths but needs a site.

However, Defense Department officials said those tentative bids were submitted prematurely and will not be considered for several months.

Once the federal agency screening is completed--including a review of the property by organizations serving the homeless--registered Native American tribes and state and local governments will be invited to submit bids for use of the land, said Pete Ciesla, the base closure coordinator for the El Toro and Tustin Marine Corps Air Stations.

Requests from private firms, such as Federal Express and other air cargo carriers, will not be handled by the Navy, Ciesla added.

“We have told them basically, ‘You don’t deal with us. You have to deal with the community reuse planning group,’ ” Ciesla said. After months of debate, the Orange County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote today on a proposed planning agency for El Toro.

Perhaps the most serious expression of interest has come from the federal prison system, which expects its inmate population of 81,000 to increase to 125,000 during the next six years, with most of the increased demand for prison cells likely to occur in California.

McMahon, the site selection coordinator, said that although the federal prison system routinely reviews all military base closures for possible development of prisons, the agency will not force itself onto a community.

In the case of the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station, for example, McMahon said officials did not even tour the station because the Tustin planning group expressed opposition to a correctional facility from the outset. A similar request from the county for a jail was also rejected by the community group.

But while local officials have wrestled with the proposed makeup of a planning organization for El Toro, the screening by federal agencies has proceeded on schedule, giving prison officials time to survey the base property and its housing units.

If officials determine that El Toro would make a good prison site, the federal agency will ask the local planning group to consider the merits of its plan, McMahon said.

“We really prefer, where possible, to be part of the base reuse plan,” he added.

Of the 72 federal prison sites nationwide, 22 are on active or deactivated bases, including four in California. Another three are under design or construction. McMahon said plans also are under way to develop other recently closed bases, including George Air Force Base in Riverside County, where 860 acres are available for construction of at least two more correctional facilities.

In its initial proposal for the El Toro base property, the bureau said it is studying some existing barracks that were built to house 1,600 to 3,200 people.

From a design standpoint, McMahon compared El Toro’s potential to Ft. Dix, the Army post in New Jersey that became the federal prison system’s largest facility, with 3,600 inmates. The prison system houses the inmates in the brick barracks once used by soldiers.

The federal prison system has four security levels: minimum, low, medium and high. Low-security prisons--the type envisioned for El Toro--are fenced in. They are designed for prisoners who are considered to be nonviolent and who live and work on the prison grounds.

Boasting of the economic benefits a prison can bring, McMahon said the jobs that would be created range from law enforcement to computer technicians and hospital workers.

Depending on the size of the project, the bureau’s proposal says, the annual operating budget could total $12 million to $30 million.

“These dollars (as they circulate in the local economy) would go a long way in terms of replacing the revenue lost by closure or downsizing the base,” the agency’s letter states.

“Once local officials and citizens have an opportunity to learn the facts about federal correctional facilities, they understand that we are a clean industry which can bring diversified employment opportunities to their community,” according to the letter signed by Patricia K. Sledge, head of the bureau’s site selection office.

Since the announcement in March that El Toro would be placed on the closure list, local officials have been divided over whether it should be developed into a commercial airport, with little attention given to other possible uses, such as a federal prison.