Chuckawalla State Prison and other California facilities will shut down  

SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) today announced that Chuckawalla Valley State Prison (CVSP) in Riverside County will close by March 2025, and that the $32 Million lease on CDCR-staffed California City Correctional Facility (CAC) will not be renewed in 2024. In their announcement, CDCR pledged that the state would work to support local communities impacted by prison closures with an economic resiliency plan. 

Additionally, CDCR named the following facilities in six other state-owned prisons: Folsom Women’s Facility to be deactivated by January 2023; California Men’s Colony (West) to be deactivated by Winter 2023; California Rehabilitation Center (A yard) to be deactivated by Spring 2023; California Institution for Men (D yard) to to be deactivated by Spring 2023; Pelican Bay State Prison (C yard) to be deactivated by Winter 2023; California Correctional Institution (D yard) to be deactivated by Summer 2023.

“Our community applauds this move toward reversing California’s terrible history of prison expansion,” said Amber-Rose Howard, Executive Director of Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB). “We hope yard deactivations are done safely, and that they are an indication of the future prison closures we all know are possible over the next several years.”

This is the latest development in California’s effort to reduce its sprawling prison system. Deuel Vocational Institution (DVI) was shuttered on September 30, 2021. Governor Newsom’s enacted budget for 2022-23 mandated that California Correctional Center (CCC) in Susanville––a six-decade-old facility requiring $503 million in repairs–– must close by June 30, 2023. Newsom’s budget also enshrined the longstanding possibility that at least three more prisons could close by 2025. Prison closure advocates maintain that in order to accomplish this goal, identifying which prisons to close next and how best to do so must be prioritized in the administration’s agenda.

The state’s own nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office produced a report in November of 2020 that outlined at least $1.5 billion annually in savings if California committed to closing five prisons by 2025. CURB released a roadmap to close at least 10 prisons across the state, potentially reducing corrections spending by $2.8 Billion annually. 

“It’s important that California continue this progress and adopt a well-considered roadmap for future prison closures, one that centers community investment and is informed by the experiences of people most harmed by incarceration,” continued Ms. Howard. 

CDCR’s announcement marks the third state prison designated to close since 2021