Planned closure of Blythe prison draws protest from leaders in Coachella Valley

After the state recently announced that a prison in Blythe will close in a couple years, several Coachella Valley officials have joined in calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to reverse the decision, which they say could spell the demise of the small town along the California-Arizona border.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced in December that it was beginning the process to close the Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe by March 2025, with plans to offer transfers to the facility’s staff and to move the people who are incarcerated there to other facilities.

The move is part of a larger push by Newsom’s administration to reduce California’s prison infrastructure and reform the state’s criminal justice system. Last week, for example, Newsom announced plans to transform San Quentin State Prison, the nation’s largest death row, into a rehabilitation center.

But the closure plans for one of Blythe’s two prisons have drawn pushback from elected officials in the Coachella Valley — including some of Newsom's fellow Democrats. Earlier this month, Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, along with Sens. Steve Padilla, D-Chula Vista, and Kelly Seyarto, R-Murrieta, penned a letter asking the governor to change course.

Local elected bodies have also gotten involved to offer their support to Blythe, which is roughly 100 miles east of the valley. This week, city councils in La Quinta and Palm Desert each agreed to send a letter calling on the governor to reconsider the closure, and the Indian Wells City Council sent a similar message earlier this month.

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What they're saying

The Chuckawalla prison employs roughly 850 people, sparking concerns about what the loss of such a major employer would mean for Blythe, a city of about 18,000. Local officials worried about the closure's effects on Palo Verde Hospital, the only hospital within 100 miles, as well as for Palo Verde College, which has an inmate education program that’s proven successful and would lose an estimated 250 students due to the closure.

“This is how a city dies,” La Quinta Councilmember Kathleen Fitzpatrick said of the state's plan Tuesday. “Blythe is already struggling. … It's absolutely amazing that the government would do this without even telling and consulting with the community, who elected to have this facility put there when nobody else wanted it.”

Both city officials and local lawmakers have noted the Chuckawalla Valley State Prison opened just 35 years ago, in 1988, making it one of the state’s newer prisons, with far lower costs to maintain than older facilities.

The group of local officials would instead prefer the state close the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco — an alternative with support from leading city officials there. That facility, which is in a building that first opened in 1928, has projected repairs costs over $1 billion, more than double those for Blythe’s prison, according to local legislators.

"Community leaders in Blythe and surrounding communities are — unlike nearly every other community — enthusiastic supporters of the prison in their region," Garcia and his legislative colleagues wrote. "This is in contrast to Norco residents, who have been advocating for the closure of the California Rehabilitation Center for years."

In all of their letters, local officials also noted many Blythe residents live in the town to be near loved ones who are incarcerated at the Chuckawalla prison, as well as the adjacent Ironwood State Prison.

“Blythe offers a low cost of living for fulltime residents as well as families of the incarcerated,” the group of legislators wrote. “If inmates are forced to move, families could face costly housing increases or even homelessness.”

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A wide-ranging group of local officials, including representatives from Blythe, Perris, Norco and the Coachella Valley Association of Governments, also recently launched a community coalition called “Save Chuck” that's advocating for a reversal of the decision.

The announced closure in December came on the heels of a Riverside County Grand Jury report describing Blythe as "dying" amid financial hardship and loss of business. That report drew pushback from local officials, who said the Grand Jury “had their minds made up” about Blythe before setting foot in it.

Tom Coulter covers the cities of Palm Desert, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells. Reach him at thomas.coulter@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Coachella Valley leaders oppose closure of Blythe's Chuckawalla prison