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| Calif. Women's Prison Closing This Week |
| By Stockton Record |
| Published: 03/03/2003 |
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The mood last week was subdued at the Northern California Women's Facility, signifying that inmates and staff, many of whom had lobbied heavily to keep the Department of Corrections from closing Northern California's only women's prison, were resigned to the prison's impending closure this. Gov. Gray Davis announced last month that closing the NCWF would save the state $1.5 million this year and $10.2 million next year. The Department of Corrections has proposed converting the prison into a men's reception center that would be an annex of Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, but such a conversion would cost at least $10 million and would require legislative approval. Delays in labor negotiations and in transportation kept inmates at the prison longer than officials originally had forecast, but the remaining 153 inmates are to be bused to another prison by February 25, acting Chief Deputy Warden George Mosqueda said. Most employees will leave after Friday, when the responsibility of the prison will be turned over to Deuel Warden Claude Finn. One by one, the prison's four housing units are being shut down, the cells emptied as inmates are transferred to other prisons, leaving behind stacked chairs and tables in the day room, and empty metal bunks and shelves in the cells. By late last week, the prison's 113 correctional officers -- and at least one inmate -- still had no idea where they would be sent after the NCWF closes. Even so, the Department of Corrections has identified enough vacant jobs within 100 miles for the NCWF staff, Mosqueda said. Kevin Raymond, NCWF branch president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, said negotiations between the union and the Department of Corrections hit a number of snags, including attempting to verify the regional job vacancies available to transferring NCWF staff. With only a week before the closing, prison staffers were still in the dark about their next work assignment and, not surprisingly, were frustrated and tense over the lack of information, Raymond said. Officials said late Friday that the department has reached agreement with all of the prison's bargaining units except the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. Negotiations were expected to continue through the weekend. |
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