PRESTON TO CLOSE

Preston Youth Correctional Facility to close

Thursday, October 21, 2010

By Matthew Hedger

Officials have confirmed that the Preston Youth Correctional Facility in Ione, the oldest operating facility for juvenile offenders in the state, will close.

A statement issued today by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said the move is in response to a declining ward population at youth correctional facilities statewide. CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate said that the 224 youths currently housed at Preston would be moved to one of the five remaining Division of Juvenile Justice facilities in the state by June 2011.

CDCR spokesman Bill Sessa said the 445 employees who will be affected by the closure will be offered positions at other facilities.

"It depends on each employee's personal circumstances," Sessa said. "What kind of job they do, where we have need, their seniority within the department ... and what they would choose to do. Each employee's circumstances can be somewhat unique, and that's one of the reasons we present each employee with their options, based on the job they do and the needs within the department."

Sessa said displaced Preston workers could be eligible for employment in other regional juvenile, or even adult, correctional facilities.

"We will make every effort to extend opportunities to every employee, and to minimize the economic effect in Amador County," Sessa said. "Even if some of these employees end up working in Sacramento, or Stockton, or at some of the other nearby adult prisons, then obviously the economic effect would still remain in Amador County, except in all likelihood they would continue to live there."

Sessa downplayed the suggestion that the announcement of the Preston closure had been moved forward because of media reports.

"When we make these kinds of announcements, we have a very orderly process, and it was important that we had the appropriate staff in place to answer all of the questions of the staff at Preston," he said.

Sessa said Acting Chief Deputy Secretary for Juvenile Justice Rachel Rios had been scheduled to meet with Preston employees yesterday, along with human resource workers, to answer those questions. Results and comments from that meeting were not available by press time.

Sessa said more meetings with the affected workers were being scheduled during the coming week.

Rumors of an impending closure have been circulating for months, according to one employee at Preston, who asked that his name not be used, because he was not authorized to comment.

"I've been hearing they were going to close us down for a long time," he said. "Our union reps were supposed to be here last week, but they canceled and now they're coming next week. I can't believe I had to hear about it in the media."

Assemblywoman Alyson Huber released a statement Wednesday: "I am outraged that the California Department of Corrections has been moving forward with a secret plan to close Preston Youth Facility while denying that was the case and without any involvement from the community," she said. "This rogue department has tried to dump unwanted facilities on communities without telling us, now they're trying to take away a wanted facility without telling us. It's unacceptable and it has to stop."

Huber asked her colleagues from the region, assembly members Ted Gaines and Roger Niello, to join her in a public hearing so they can get answers from the department.

"I want Preston to stay open, helping protect the public and keeping badly needed jobs in the community, but even if the facility is one day to be slated for closure, it has to be after a process that fully involves the community and prevents economic harm to the community," she said. "The department's secret rush to judgment on this facility fails both those tests - and it raises red flags to all of us who have been pushing for more openness and accountability in government."

Responding to the rampant rumors, Amador County Supervisors sent a letter to the CDCR earlier this week, asking them to be transparent in their decision-making process and to consider the impact a closure of the facility would have.

"A closure of Preston YCF will have a ripple effect in the county of Amador," they wrote, "Any decision to shut the doors on the Preston Youth Correctional facility in Ione will have a tremendous negative impact on the community of Ione and the county."

The facility was opened in 1894 as the Preston School of Industry. Preston's original building, a castle-like structure, dominates the city skyline and has become an iconic symbol for Ione.