Articles & News

September 9, 2008

Yolo in line for prison funds -- if new facility is approved

By Hudson Sangree - hsangree@sacbee.com

In recent months, the state's overcrowded prison system has called at Yolo County's door bearing troubling gifts.

State officials have offered the county $30 million to expand its undersized jail. That's a large sum for the cash-strapped county, and Yolo leaders are eager to accept.

There's a catch, of course.

To get the funds, county supervisors must agree to host a state re-entry facility for as many as 500 inmates and find a suitable location.

Neither Yolo County's cities nor rural communities want the mini-prison, however, and time is running out.

Supervisors must offer three sites to the state by Sept. 13. They are scheduled to vote Tuesday.

The board meeting is expected to be heated – and it is unclear if the county has workable sites.

"I'm hopeful there will be a viable site in Yolo," said Paula Gutierres, a deputy director with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, who is working with Yolo and other counties to establish re-entry facilities.

The facilities, created by state law last year, are planned throughout the state.

Offering counseling, training and education to inmates in their last year of incarceration, the secure facilities are meant to relieve prison crowding and prevent parolees from winding up back in custody.

Nearly everyone agrees it's a laudable effort – but few want the mini-prisons near them.

The incorporated cities in Yolo – Woodland, Davis and West Sacramento – have a legal right to refuse the re-entry facility, and city leaders have made it clear they don't want it.

That leaves only the county's unincorporated areas.

As sites have been considered near the rural communities of Zamora, Dunnigan, Esparto, Madison and West Plainfield, hundreds of angry residents have attended town hall meetings to protest.

"Nobody wants a prison," said Gary Jacobs, who lives near one proposed site at the Yolo County Airport. "This reeks of bribery."

Jacobs said he would rather pay additional taxes for jail expansion than take the state grant.

He helped organize a meeting last week in a sweltering hall in West Plainfield, a farming area northwest of Davis. About 300 local residents fanned themselves and expressed their frustration.

County supervisors Matt Rexroad and Helen Thomson attended the meeting, which was relatively civil. They have been jeered at previous gatherings.

Rexroad, who supports a re-entry facility, said he is not on speaking terms with his father, a rural resident and staunch opponent.

Thomson, a former state lawmaker from Davis, argues the re-entry facilities are "good public policy." Parolees who reoffend cost taxpayers millions of dollars, she said.

Many inmates housed at the re-entry facility would be Yolo County residents. Hundreds now return each year with little preparation, Thomson said.

"We have to grapple with this," she said.

Duane Chamberlain, a rancher and chairman of the Board of Supervisors, supported a re-entry facility at the site first proposed near the county jail in Woodland.

But the supervisor sided with opponents after the state declared the site too small, and county planners focused on areas in Chamberlain's rural district.

The Yolo County Airport, he said, was a "foolish site" to build a mini-prison because of land-use restrictions in place.

He also opposed sites near Dunnigan, in northern Yolo County.

Those sites are now off the table after hundreds of residents voiced their displeasure.

"They tried to get Dunnigan, and they got so much resistance that they backed off," Chamberlain said.

Two other sites under review are near Esparto and Madison, along Highway 16.

Chamberlain said the best location would be an area between Woodland, West Sacramento and Davis – the cities most parolees call home.

"It doesn't belong out in farm country," he said.

Prison director Gutierres has attended citizen meetings in Yolo and other counties struggling with re-entry facilities. A not-in-my-backyard attitude prevails, she said.

But with so much money at stake – larger counties stand to gain $80 million to $120 million in jail construction funds – Gutierres thinks most will reach an accord. If Yolo can't, she said, "that would be a shame."