Rural detention center for youth may be closed

A juvenile justice facility in rural California is in danger of being closed, reports Marisa Lagos of the San Francisco Chronicle. The plan to close the Preston Youth Correctional Facility in rural Amador County would "kill an entire county," because it is one of the largest employers in the area, said Assemblywoman Alyson Huber, D-El Dorado Hills, who is fighting the closure.  (Photo by Brant Ward for the San Francisco Chronicle. Guard Dennis Miller surveys Preston in 2001.)

California is trying to "plug a $25.4 billion budget gap," writes Lagos, and closing Preston would save the state $30 million this fiscal year, officials estimate. Preston is the oldest of of five juvenile facilities in California and houses just 224 youths of 1,300 juvenile offenders in the state. Most of the youths there are hours away from their families. By most accounts, the building is in terrible condition.  Sumayyah Waheed, who runs a campaign at an Oakland civil rights group, called Preston a "dungeon" and rattled off a litany of incidents that have occurred there, including suicides and the use of Mace by guards. "Preston is also the most remote, the furthest away from youths' families," she said. "Everyone has to ask their family to travel ... it's really a burden."

The facility employs about 450 people in a county with just 38,000 residents and a 12.4 percent unemployment rate, reports Lagos. Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Bill Sessa said closing Preston is a budget decision, noting that the Department of Juvenile Justice was ordered to cut $39 million from its budget this fiscal year and has already closed eight facilities this decade. The agency is working to place Preston's employees in other corrections facilities within communting distance. (Read more)