Gov. Gavin Newsom shouldn’t expect much pushback from the next city in line to lose a state prison.
Norco in Riverside County for years has been lobbying to close the California Rehabilitation Center, arguing the city can find a better use for the site. It was an art deco hotel before it was a state prison.
Now, the prison is on track to close in 2026. Newsom’s corrections department said on Tuesday that the prison is no longer needed because of the state’s falling incarcerated population.
It’ll be the fifth to close during Newsom’s administration.
Other prison cities fought the closures by suing the state or lobbying to hold on to the jobs.
Not Norco. It posted a statement on social media saying officials look forward to the “adaptive reuse” of the former hotel.
About 1,200 people work at the prison. They won’t necessarily be laid off when the prison closes because some will be able to transfer to other sites.
More on California prisons: An effort to display a large-scale piece of artwork inside the walls of California’s once infamous prison brings hope and a sense of community to an often overlooked population, reports CalMatters’ Joe Garcia.
In 2023 Newsom unveiled a multimillion-dollar plan to reorganize and rebrand the state’s oldest prison into a facility focused on rehabilitation. Renamed the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, the plan included new educational buildings and turning the former Death Row housing unit into living quarters for the general prison population.
But these changes did little to address the dull exteriors that still signified confinement to its inhabitants, writes Joe. Joe worked with Kai Bannon, an incarcerated person and co-founder of the nonprofit San Quentin SkunkWorks, to help commission and raise money for a mural for the facility, which was completed in July.
