Mark Hedlund, Reporter, http://www.news10.net

ESPERATO, CA -- Esparto is as typical as it gets for a small farm town. The last thing people here want is a new, 500-bed state re-entry prison on the edge of town.

"It's so close to the kids," said Oralia Rodriguez. "And just because they're rehabilitating these individuals it doesn't mean they're not going to go back to the crimes they committed."

The site in Esparto is one of three that may be offered to the state. In return, Yolo County will get $30 million to expand and renovate its 20 year old jail. That jail is so overcrowded, an average of 275 inmates are released early every month.

Near Esparto, and near the two other proposed sites there are signs planted on the roadside or plastered to light poles urging people to protest any new state prison. The second site is also off Highway 16, just east of Madison. The third site is east of Davis and south of the Yolo County Airport.

"I don't want them hanging around my community, we're very small," complained Michelle Foster of Esparto. "As it is now we don't have any place for our children to hang out, except for the town. I don't want my children exposed to these people."

"A lot of the neighborhood is concerned about having all the inmates right around this here neighborhood,  to where if the sheriff is called it takes them a while to get out here," said another Esparto resident, David Berlin.

But Undersheriff Tom Lopez believes a re-entry prison would actually make citizens safer because it provides job training, counseling and other life skills to help inmates get on the straight and narrow as they're about to finish their state prison sentence.

"The way the system works today is that you serve your time in a state facility, you're given $200 and a handshake and told good luck," said Lopez. "A re-entry facility will hopefully
bridge some of those areas where these people are lacking in trying to find jobs and counseling to help them not create new crimes."

"Those folks that are gonna be housed in the facility are people that would already be out in the communities," he said.

As for the need to expand and renovate the local jail, Lopez said it's a desperate need. 

"On a daily basis, it's usually a one for one. We get a new arrestee who comes in the door, then we have to release another inmate out the back door  to make room for that person," said Lopez. Last year, Yolo County had to release a total of 3,300 inmates before they finished their sentences or as they awaited court dates.

On Tuesday, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors will vote whether or not to accept the jail money and offer the three possible prison sites to the state. The trade off is a provision of AB300 which appropriated money for local jail improvements.