To the editor: Gov. Gavin Newsom is right to close the California Rehabilitation Center (“Corrections officers at Norco prison make plea to state to keep it open,” Sept. 20). It’s costly and misguided to suggest reopening prisons or jails we’ve already decided to close.
CRC is unsafe and outdated, with an estimated $1.1 billion-plus in needed repairs, a history of Americans with Disabilities Act violations and extreme heat. The city of Norco itself has welcomed closure and is eager to repurpose the historic site for economic development and community benefit.
Some claim that Assembly Bill 109 realignment — the 2011 law that shifted some people from state prison to county jail — is overwhelming jails. But the Sheriff’s Department’s own data shows otherwise: Only about 7% of people in L.A. jails are serving those sentences, as the Los Angeles Times article points out. The real drivers are elsewhere. More than half of people in custody are held pretrial without convictions, and thousands with mental health needs remain jailed because the county has failed to create treatment beds.
Stop looking to any shuttered prison or jail as the answer. It betrays the communities who pushed for closure and won’t fix the unconstitutional conditions alleged in Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s lawsuit or address why so many people remain in custody.