EL TORO MARINE BASE : Reuse Plan Members to Go on Prison Tour

Members of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority will leave Monday for a weeklong tour of federal low- and medium-security prisons in Texas and Florida.

The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons, which proposed a 155-acre prison to the authority in late April, is sponsoring the trip to visit prisons in Miami and Big Spring, Tex.

The nine-member panel was established in March to consider conversion ideas for the base, which covers nearly 5,000 acres and will close by 1999. A proposal to build a commercial airport on the site will be on the ballot in November.

All five county supervisors, three Irvine council members and a Lake Forest council member sit on the panel.

The bureau’s proposals have described a 2,100-bed facility to house minimum- and medium-security inmates. The bureau would hire about 300 employees, many of them from Orange County, county officials were told.

“What the Bureau of Prisons is trying to communicate is that the bureau is a good neighbor,” said Kathleen Crowley, executive assistant in Supervisor William G. Steiner’s office. “They are also trying to assure them (the panel) that they are a safe neighbor.”

Irvine Mayor Michael Ward said he has not seen a federal prison.

“There’s naturally an awful lot of gut reaction when people hear the word ‘prison,’ ” he said. “I think I, at least, owe it to the people of Irvine to see it before I make the decision.”

Ann Van Haun, a Lake Forest City Council member, said she is not taking the trip. “We felt that it was somewhat premature to be going,” she said. “It would give them encouragement at this point in time and we really haven’t considered all the uses.”

Most other panel members said they want take the trip to talk with residents who live next to federal prisons to gather comments, reactions and suggestions.