Destined to be a Prison Town
Economic Ramifications from the Closure of California Corrections Center
COVID-19 hit the nation hard, but especially so within correctional facilities. Confinement of people naturally leads to confinement of a virus that quickly spreed through the inmate population. In light of the decrease population from COVID-19 related restrictions the California Corrections Center in Susanville, the demand for prison has expectedly declined. However, Gov. Gavin Newsom has condemned a community to its own economic death sentence at a time when community economic vitality is already on shaky grounds.
It should be noted that my views of California’s correctional facility boom in the early 1990’s was initially flawed and led to major economic interruption and removed many decent people from our communities. Rarely do I find myself in a position to support building more prisons, nor do I find myself in that position with the building of the prisons in Susanville. I do find myself accepting the facts that the prisons were built and an economic subregion was established and nourished because of it. The State must provide an economically equivalent industry in the city to ensure the future of Susanville is prosperous.
“The significant decrease in the state’s incarcerated population over the past year is allowing CDCR to move forward with these prison closures in a thoughtful manner that does not impact public safety, and that focuses on the successful reentry of people into communities once they release from our custody. While these decisions are never easy, they are opening the door for the department to increase efficiencies as California continues to focus on reentry and rehabilitation efforts.” — Kathleen Allison, CDCR Secretary, 2021
This news would most likely pass through most peoples news filter, as it does not reflect the underlying issue that this prison has set up. Beginning in the early 1960’s, construction of correctional facilities in Susanville California created an economic hot spot in the middle of a vast desert. Later in the century, the California Correctional Facility in Susanville was joined by the High Desert State Prison. The combination of these two facilities created a sub-economic region in Susanville that provided employment for over 40% of residents.
With two prisons, the towns population inflated to over 13,000 people giving it the economic boost required to pull many out of poverty.
Prison Town USA is a documentary about a small town called Susanville, and how they fixed their economic struggle. In the early 1990’s California had a huge prison boom. The state started building prisons wherever they could. Susanville saw this boom as a fix for their economic issues.
The film follows four different people who are effected in different, but all major ways. One of the men, Lonnie, was sent to prison for 16 months for a small petty theft to get some bread for his starving family. While in prison, his family struggled to live under a roof every night and get food on the table. They hoped things would change once Lonnie was released. They were very wrong. Because of our states parole rules, Lonnie was forced to stay in Susanville for the duration of his parole. This would be all ok, but Lonnie was unable to find a job. After the prison was built, many people started becoming correctional officers, and businesses and mills began closing. Lonnie soon saw the consequences to this lack of work. His family continued to be in extreme poverty, trying to find ways to just get by. Things only started to look up for them once Lonnie’s parole ended.
The movie also followed two men who worked in various businesses in Susanville when the High Desert State Prison (HDSP) opened up in 1995. They saw the bright future with in the prison life and decided to go to the Correctional Officers Academy. One of them failed out, but made it the second time around. They both became correctional officers at HDSP and started make a lot more money than they had before. It is clear that in Susanville, the only way to have a secure income is to work for the prison.
In the film we also follow the local milkman. Due to state law, the prison was required to sign a contract to order all their milk locally from this man. However, while the film follows him the contract is about to expire and the prison wasn’t wanting to renew it. You see the milkman struggling to fight for his renewal by going to meetings and getting signatures and sending letters to the governor.
When the film ended, it was clear to me that having a prison in an already struggling town with a struggling economy is a very bad idea. It may seem extremely profitable at first, but in the long run, nobody wins and then the city gets the unfortunate title of being a prison town.
We have seen the beastly impact of correctional facilities and their lasting economic implications on communities. There is a clear initial boost to the sub economic region, but it become quickly reliant on the prison facilities itself. With its closure, the unemployment rate in Susanville is sure to skyrocket to include not only those shown in the documentary, but to the very officers sworn to confine those found guilty in our criminal justice system.
This is evident in a quote released by the Mayor of Susanville stating:
“We have population-based funding, It’s going to affect the city’s funding. We don’t know how it will affect citizen services. There’s this whole domino effect that’s happening, and it’s the feeling about town. It’s sad.” — Mendy Schuster
The impact does not stop there. School administrators are fearing steep decline in enrollment and continuing the downward spiral of the cities vitality. Now one can argue that the prisons should not be there to begin with and California’s mass incarceration efforts were ilogical.
While that assumption may be true, historical facts of prison building must be accepted and the consequences from their closure mitigated to ensure continued vitality of a community that desperately needs industry of some kind. The State created this prison dependancy, and must address it before it is to late. A sudden closure is sure to trigger economic crash within the region. This is bureaucracy rearing its ugly head at the detriment of our fellow Americans.
