‘CDCR should reopen four more facilities’
In order for state prison officials to meet a court ordered population cap, the once closed Shafter City Community Corrections Facility will reopen, reports The Californian.
The deal has been approved by the city council, said, City Manger John Guinn, adding that 86 workers have been hired to staff the facility and that bids for construction work to meet CDCR needs are being submitted.
“CDCR is already in discussions to reopen a number of CCFs”
“In light of the federal court order limiting the state prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity, public CCFs can and should be used to help reach this mandate,” said City Manager John Guinn in The Californian report. “It is my understanding the CDCR is already in discussions to reopen a number of CCFs in the state and I believe that CDCR should reopen four more facilities.”
The Californian quotes State Senator Andy Vidak, R-Hanford, as urging Jeffery Beard, secretary of the CDCR, to reopen CCFs in Coaling, Delano, Shafter and Taft to meet the inmate population cap.
Guinn said reopening the correctional facility would be a big boom to Shafter by adding nearly 90 good jobs, which translates to $14 million a year to the city.
The added money would be channeled into a school development project aligned with Richland and Kern County School District, Guinn said. The project is designed to promote early literacy and improve high school graduation rates.