PLAN TO BUILD PRIVATE JAIL IN CALIFORNIA CITY CRITICIZED.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writer

California City leaders anxious to bring jobs and money to their town have been lobbying for a state prison for six years, but not everybody is happy with the latest proposal for building a privately run, 500-bed correctional facility northwest of downtown.

Opponents are circulating petitions calling for Houston-based Cornell Corrections to build somewhere other than the proposed site on Neuralia Road, 1-3/4 miles from California City Boulevard, which they think is too close to residential neighborhoods, the business district and the city airport.

``We're not against the prison. We're against the proposed location,'' said Milo Smith, who lives 1-3/4 miles from the spot.

Smith, his wife, Darlene, and several other people have collected more than 300 signatures urging Cornell and the city to select another location, preferably several miles northeast of the central city.

That's the area the state has selected for its own prison, which right now is being held up for lack of funds to build it.

The Smiths plan to collect signatures through May 28, then hand deliver the petition to state prison officials in Sacramento.

State officials already have in their hands another petition - also signed by more than 300 people - but in favor of Cornell's facility, which would employ more than 100 people.

City Manager Steve West delivered the supportive petition earlier this month in Sacramento.

West says that research done while California City was considering seeking a state prison shows that fears over escapes are exaggerated. Escapees want to get as far away from the prison as quickly as they can, he said, meaning they won't be hanging around California City.

As for the airport, West says that the California Transportation Department, which is responsible for land-use decisions around the airport, has sent a letter endorsing the Cornell facility.

``It is outside the landing pattern and the approach pattern for the airport,'' West said.

The Smiths and other critics do not buy West's arguments.

Smith said Cornell's preferred location is 1-3/4 miles north of California City Boulevard on Neuralia, three blocks from a new housing tract and 1-1/4 miles from the end of the airport runway.

The distance from the runway to the proposed correctional facility is far less than that between tract homes and Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, for example, he said.

While escapees may want to get out of town quickly, they also are likely to head for the closest neighborhood for a car to steal, or a home to hole up in while making a telephone call to a friend to come get them, Smith said.

The Cornell site is so close that a prisoner could easily reach either homes or the business district before the routine head counts indicate he is gone, Smith said.

Smith believes that many supporters of Cornell's facility are confusing it with the state prison, which he says would be far enough outside town not to bother anyone.

Finding people to sign the petition opposing Cornell's site hasn't been hard, he said.

``It's been people mostly calling us,'' he said. ``One guy who drove over last night, he drove six miles to sign our petition.''