Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to accelerate his plans to reduce incarceration in California by closing two state prisons in the next few years.

Newsom announced plans for closing a second prison during a budget address last week, expanding on a previous proposal to close one prison while putting more resources into rehabilitation.

The closures would save the state about $400 million per year, according to his budget request, and could eliminate the need for millions of dollars worth of deferred repairs, depending on which prisons would be closed.

Newsom last week said the state hasn’t determined which of the state’s 34 prisons would be closed, adding that the state is in negotiations over a closure. He said revealing which prisons would be closed could make it difficult to keep operating the facilities.

“It becomes very difficult if you do make that determination and make it public, to recruit, retain personnel at that site,” he said. “It could create all kinds of problems.”

Yet not announcing the specifics is causing worry among workers across the state’s corrections system, said Steve Crouch, director of public employees for the International Union of Operating Engineers.

“Instead of having several hundred people worried, he’s got several thousand people worried,” Crouch said.

The union represents plumbers, heating and cooling specialists and other maintenance workers at the prisons. The California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association did not provide an interview or a comment in response to a request.

$16 billion prison budget

There is anxiety even among workers who aren’t concerned their facility would close, said Ralph Arceo, 45, a union steward who is a stationary engineer at Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.

The concern, he said, is that senior employees from a closed facility could bump out newer workers if a shuffling of staff involving layoffs were to occur.

“We’re in a holding pattern,” Arceo said.

The Department of Finance did not provide details on how much notice the administration might give before closing a facility.

Under Newsom’s proposal, the state would start to close the first prison in the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2021. The second prison would begin closing the following year.

The state spends about $16 billion per year on corrections. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spends roughly $13 billion and a range of other programs and offices spend the rest.

California faces a projected budget deficit of $54 billion, covering the remainder of this fiscal year and the fiscal year starting July 1. Newsom warned the state’s budget pain could extend well beyond that.

Closing an institution is one of the few ways to save a lot of money within the system. Twelve of the oldest prisons need $11 billion worth of repairs, while the other 22 need $8 billion worth of work, according to a study the state commissioned.

Before the coronavirus wrecked the state’s economy, Newsom had proposed closing one state prison within five years. The Legislative Analyst’s Office suggested closing two could save more money.

Ended private contracts

Newsom reiterated his focus on rehabilitation last week, saying his administration plans to turn one of the prisons into “a world-class, second-to-none example of rehabilitation at scale.”

California rapidly expanded its prison system in the 1980s and 1990s, building 21 prisons.

The state has been moving in the other direction over the last decade, reducing the prison population by about 30,000 people under legislation and voter-approved initiatives that relaxed sentencing and enabled earlier release. The reductions have taken place under federal court orders related to overcrowding.

The downward trend, combined with the huge costs of repairing the old prisons, force California to make decisions about reinvesting in incarceration or turning to rehabilitation, said Lizzie Buchen, the criminal justice director of the ACLU of Northern California.

“I’m encouraged to see that in this fork in the road we’re trying to go in the direction of closing prisons,” Buchen said.

Last year, the state ended its contracts with out-of-state private prisons, and is working on ending its remaining in-state contracts.

“The sky has not fallen with those population reductions,” Buchen said. “A lot of people have seen significant benefit from being returned to their communities and reunited with their families. We need to see more of that and the reforms need to go farther.”

This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Gavin Newsom speeds up plans to close two California prisons, worrying employees."