Newsom closed five prisons in California. Lawmakers could shut down more

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At the time the governor Gavin Newsom left office, California will have five state prisons less than when he took over.

Some California state lawmakers want to have six.

They are based on new analysis that shows the state’s prison population has declined so dramatically that California could close another prison and still have capacity for the roughly 90,000 people currently incarcerated.

That report drew direct questions to California Prisons Secretary Jeffrey Macomber during a budget hearing last week. The legislators They foresee tight budgets, if not deficits, for years to come, and the Newsom administration estimates that closing prisons saves about $150 million a year.

The senator Laura Richardson He told Macomber he would prefer to keep inmates in close quarters, such as double cells, if it meant saving money that could be used to help people in need.

“If I had to choose between two prisoners who cell sharing which is allowed and has been done for many years, and to be able to provide health care to citizens, to people who live in the state of California but are not citizens, I would certainly lean toward the latter option,” said Richardson, a Democrat who represents Inglewood.

The debate is possible because California prisons hold about 70,000 fewer people than in 2011, when severe overcrowding and court orders forced the Legislature to create a plan to reduce that number.

The prison system is currently subject to a court order limiting the number of inmates to 137.5% of capacity. The Legislative Analyst’s Office reported last month that the prisons have a capacity of 98,000, meaning the Department of Corrections has approximately 8,000 more beds than needed.

“Reducing the number of empty beds in service by closing one more prison would provide significant savings,” the report states.

The analyst’s office recommended lawmakers reject major infrastructure improvements at prisons that could be closed. He specifically singled out a Monterey County jail known as the Correctional Training Center as one that should be considered for closure, in part because of the need for expensive renovations.

The next prison to close will be the California Correctional Facility in Norco, Riverside County which is scheduled to close in October. Prior to that, the Newsom administration closed prisons in the Blythe, near the Arizona border ; Tracy, in San Joaquin County; and Susanville, in rural Lassen County . The state also ended its contract with a private prison in Kern County, a facility it now operates as immigration detention center.

The Newsom administration plans to spend $18 billion in prisons next year, a figure that has remained virtually unchanged since 2024. Prisons Secretary Macomber said at the budget hearing that the department accounts for about 5.6 percent of the state budget, down from 10 percent a decade ago.

Macomber told Sen. Richardson that closing a prison could create hardships for both prison staff and inmates. For example, he explained, each prison receives about 100 additional inmates every time the state closes a facility, which can cause delays in rehabilitation programs.

It also limits the space for programs and initiatives that allow inmates to prepare for life after prison, such as providing them with individual cells.

“The downside of closing prisons is that it really affects public safety,” Macomber said.
“Inmates from this prison that’s closing are not coming home. I’m transferring them to other prisons. They’re getting on waiting lists for rehabilitation and programs. We’re adding more overcrowding, more double cells, more hardship.”

“If we want to reinvent our system, we need more interaction, more rehabilitation programs for our population,” he said.