Lawsuit Opposes Construction of Kern County Prison

Arguing that California doesn’t need another prison, a coalition of activists filed a lawsuit Monday to block construction of a mammoth maximum-security facility in Kern County.

Waving signs reading “Stop the Prison Building Boom,” members of six legal and human rights groups met before a state parole office to confront state correctional officials with the state’s own statistics that show a recent decline in the inmate population for the first time in two decades.

The numbers suggest it’s time for officials to scale back California’s ambitious prison-building program, the nation’s largest, the activists say. The proposed 5,000-bed prison would cost $335 million and would be built next to an existing facility near Delano in northern Kern County.

“This prison is just not needed,” said Craig Gilmore of the California Prison Moratorium Project. “It’s a waste of money. It’ll be bad for Delano and bad for the state.”

Gilmore said state officials have historically overestimated projections of new inmates, using the numbers to justify building more prisons. But now, he said, even state numbers point to a slide in the number of inmates.

“Their new five-year projection for the year 2005 shows a 10,000-inmate decline from their projections for the same time made just six months ago,” he said. “Add the fact that the crime rate has dropped for eight straight years, and this prison looks even more extravagant.”

The prison population of 161,401 in late June was 360 below the total at the same time last year, according to statistics from the California Department of Corrections. The drop represents a year-to-year decline not seen in the nation’s largest prison system since 1977.

State officials called the recent population dip an anomaly.

“We’re fairly confident that our fall projections will show inmate population numbers that are going to be higher than those we saw in the spring,” said department representative Jeanie Esajian.

State officials say the prison will help meet a projected inmate population rise to 178,000 by 2005, providing space for a rising number of maximum-security prisoners, many of whom are now housed in converted quarters usually serving lower-security inmates.

“The reality is that you get these prisoners and they’re going to be with you for a very long time,” said corrections Director Cal Terhune. “California is growing, crime isn’t going away. People are going to have to be locked up. We’re running out of cells. We need that new capacity.”

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Bakersfield, alleges that the state’s plan to offer $4 million to the city of Delano to help pay for effects of population growth caused by the prison was outrageously low for a city struggling with 26% unemployment, a city that can’t afford to build a much-needed new high school.

“This is a trifling amount to offset the additional pressures on an already overcrowded school district,” Erica Etelson of the National Lawyers Guild Prison Law Project said at Monday’s news conference. “This doesn’t cut it. It’s a joke and an insult to the town.”

Responded Terhune: “We’re trying to be good neighbors in Delano. But my understanding is that they wanted this prison. In fact, they lobbied long and hard for it.”

Delano Assistant City Manager Michele Carr said the community was torn over its support of the project and the $4 million in compensation, half of which would go to the school district.

“I don’t think you’ll find any area where the citizenry is 100% in favor of having a state prison in its backyard,” she said. The city did not participate in the lawsuit.

Activists said they were also concerned that the new prison would pave over an endangered species habitat near the existing North Kern State Prison at the Delano site.

State Sen. Tom Hayden’s office sent a letter to state officials expressing concern about the habitat, which is home to the San Joaquin kit fox, the bluntnosed leopard lizard and the kangaroo rat.

State Department of Fish and Game officials responded in May, saying that the new prison would be built near but not on the habitat site. Nonetheless, the letter said, the officials would take precautions--including erecting a 100-foot buffer zone--to help keep the area pristine.

Kate Neiswender, chief consultant for the Senate Natural Resources Committee, who wrote the letter to state officials, said the matter has yet to be resolved.

“We weren’t in the position to follow up to see if they were telling the truth or not,” she said. “Before this prison gets built, someone is going to have to do that.”