Sacramento – 3rd District Assemblymember Alyson Huber and some of her colleagues grilled California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials on the reasoning behind their plan to close Preston Youth Correctional Facility during a Joint Legislative Audit Committee last Thursday.
Chaired by Huber, the committee was held at the State Capitol and attended by busloads of concerned Amador County citizens. The buses were chartered by District 2 Supervisor Richard Forster, whose district is home to the historic facility.
Huber said that despite the cooperation of CDCR officials, who provided four boxes of documents in support of their decision, there “still seemed to be no clear vision or plan” that justified choosing Preston as the facility best suited for closure. She used the hearing to compel answers to questions about how they will mitigate the impacts of the closure.
Scott Kernan, Undersecretary at the CDCR, and Rachael Rios, Chief Deputy Secretary of the Division of Juvenile Justice, both present as witnesses, repeatedly stated that they were forced to close the facility due to budgetary cutbacks by the state and a declining ward population driven by legislation that puts more wards under county care.
Kernan said Preston went from roughly 10,000 wards to 1,300 today, and “unfortunately departments are funded by the amount of wards they have.” He said Preston is an “aging facility” with “estimated ongoing infrastructure costs” of more than $40 million, compared to (VIDEO) $13 million for the O.H. Close and N.A. Chaderjian youth correctional facilities in Stockton. He said most Preston wards will be incorporated into these two facilities.
Kernan said the CDCR’s plan has always been to keep two youth facilities open in the north and two in the south, and to “keep wards as close to their families as possible.”
Huber said there are currently 174 administrative staff members at DJJ headquarters, 49.1 in Stockton and 29 at Preston. She said it is “really hard to justify (cutting expenses) by closing a facility instead of cutting staff.”
14th District Senator Dave Codgill of Stockton said the CDCR is operating under the policies of the current administration and suggested it may be better to “put these decisions on hold until we see where (Governor-elect Jerry Brown) and the new legislature want to go.”
Kernan said they are open to “shift with new policy changes.”
Drew Soderborg, Senior Fiscal and Policy Analyst in the Legislative Analyst’s Office, confirmed what many in the audience already knew – that Preston ranked highest in the state under the criteria of Farrell v. Cate, a lawsuit which led to an overarching plan to remedy serious ongoing problems in the juvenile justice system. The acknowledgement resulted in rounds of applause.
Rios pointed out that the next highest ranking facility was 3 percent lower on the list, and the lawsuit was only one of several factors that played into their determination.
Amador citizens also voiced their concerns during public comment.
Pam Handle, a teacher at the N.A. Chaderjian facility said “we become families for these (wards) because…many don’t have families. To shut us down is a legacy your department does not want to live with.”
Huber said a community meeting will be held to discuss the matter further in December.
Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
