New Prison Facility in Stockton is Unwanted

Earlier this month, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the federal receiver announced plans to convert a previous youth correctional facility in Stockton, CA into a medical facility for proper care of adult inmates. This is because there have been arguments that the existing facilities are not equipped to treat the medical and mental needs of inmates.

The Coleman v. Schwarzenegger case determined that because prisons are so overcrowded, these conditions prevent proper treatment of inmates and required the state to reduce its prison design capacity from 190% to 137.5% (U.S. District Court). What used to be DeWitt Nelson Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton was considered a desirable location for a facility with more beds for inmates with medical and mental health problems and will be able to hold over one thousand inmates (CDCR Press Release). DeWitt was closed in 2008 because of a decrease of juvenile population.

Right after this decision was announced, members of the community expressed their opposition to having a medical facility for prisoners in their area. The city of Stockton along with San Joaquin County filed a lawsuit against the federal receiver and the CDCR without consulting officials prior to making the decision, according to an article by the Tri-Valley Herald. However, the press release by the CDCR states that they came to the decision after conversing with Stockton leaders. The arguments are that with the construction of this new facility, financial problems will arise for the city of Stockton as well as a “worsen the short supply of medical providers available for law abiding citizens” (Stockton Record). The department of Corrections claims that this project will bring over one thousand construction jobs and after the facility is complete, there could be as many as 600 staff jobs.

Regardless of how beneficial this may be for prison officials, it’s natural for the members of the community to oppose the construction of a new prison facility. It’s difficult to accept that prisoners will be closer to us than what we would like and that the decision has already been made. With the lawsuit, all plans will be on hold for this project so we will have to wait to find out what the outcome will be.