RUNNER BILL WOULD GIVE STATE TWO NEW PRISONS FACILITIES NOT EXPECTED IN A.V., SENATOR SAYS.

Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- California would build two new state prisons, a correctional-officer training academy and 10 small ``re-entry program facilities'' under legislation authored by state Sen. George Runner to deal with crowded, problem-plagued state prisons.

Introducing the measures as part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's prison reform package, Runner said he doubts that the new prisons would end up in the Antelope Valley but said the high desert would be a good location for the training academy.

``I think it depends on what community steps up,'' Runner said of where the new prisons might be built.

A federal receiver took control of the prisons' medical system in April after a U.S. District Court judge found that an average of one inmate a week was dying of malpractice or neglect. The receiver, Robert Sillen, has authority to mandate wide-ranging reforms that could cost California taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, The Associated Press reported.

At the rate criminals are being sentenced now, California's 33 prisons are expected to run out of room to take in more inmates in June 2007, and officials fear that a judge will order that prisoners be released earlier if more space is not created.

In addition, Los Angeles County officials are transferring out of county jails more than 1,200 parole violators the county had incarcerated under a state contract. County officials said they need the space for county prisoners, and they hope moving out the parolees will reduce the tensions and violence that last winter turned into riots that left two dead.

Statewide, prisons contain nearly 172,000 inmates -- 159,000 of them men -- and 19,000 are sleeping in gymnasiums, day rooms and hallways, some in triple bunks. Lancaster's California State Prison-Los Angeles County, for example, was designed for 2,200 inmates in single-inmate cells, but since it opened it has had two inmates per cell.

Now it has some 4,540 inmates, including about 330 sleeping in bunks set up in gymnasiums and recreation day rooms. All the prison's gymnasiums have been filled with bunks, prison spokesman Lt. Ken Lewis said.

State officials have proposed constructing dormitory-style quarters for 400 inmates by April, and for an additional 264 by 2009 at the Lancaster prison.

``The inmates are already there, just in gyms and that kind of issue,'' Runner said.

One-quarter of the Lancaster prison has already been converted into a reception center, where inmates arriving from court convictions or on parole violations spend about 60 days being assessed before they are sent on to permanent prison quarters.

The nature of the two proposed new prisons has not been decided. One might be a medical facility to treat prisoners with major medical problems and the other might be a mental facility, Runner said.

The ``re-entry program facilities'' would be locked buildings that would each hold 50 inmates in the last 90 days of their sentences, so they could be linked to welfare, counseling and other help before they are released on parole.

The inmates would go to ``re-entry'' facilities in the communities where they are scheduled to be paroled.

Where the prisons, ``re-entry facilities'' and training academy will be built will depend on recommendations by state prison officials and ultimately the decision rests with the state Legislature, Runner said.

Runner said he expects opposition from residents of communities where the re-entry facilities are to be built, but he said the re-entry facilities should do a better job of linking inmates to community services before they leave prison.

``I assume there will be folks who say we don't want one of these. That fact right now is they are getting these parolees,'' Runner said.

To come up with room for the impending crunch next summer, California prison officials are negotiating with officials in other states to take in California prisoners, primarily illegal immigrants imprisoned for California crimes. They hope to place 5,000 of those inmates in other states with room in prisons or jails.

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Lancaster's California State Prison-Los Angeles County was designed for 2,200 inmates but now has 4,540.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer