California State Prison, Los Angeles County
Encyclopedia
California State Prison, Los Angeles County (LAC) is a male-only state prison located in the city of Lancaster
, in Los Angeles County, California
. The first and only state prison located in the county, it is also referenced as Los Angeles County State Prison, CSP-Los Angeles County. Only occasionally is the prison referred to as Lancaster State Prison, which was particularly avoided in 1992 partly to ease the stigma for Lancaster.
LAC's 262 acres (106 ha) include the following facilities:
A 2006-2007 conversion "of roughly half of" LAC's facilities decreased the number of maximum security inmates and increased the number of reception center inmates. Since reception center inmates are at the prison for shorter times than maximum security inmates, the conversion may "reduce the number of families that will relocate to the region to be near a family member who is in the prison" and "reduce the number of prisoners who will want to relocate to the area after serving their sentences or after being released on parole."
Lancaster, California
Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, in the high desert, near the Kern County line. Lancaster currently ranks as the 30th largest city in California, and the 148th largest city in the United States. Lancaster is the principal city within the Antelope Valley...
, in Los Angeles County, California
Los Angeles County, California
Los Angeles County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 9,818,605, making it the most populous county in the United States. Los Angeles County alone is more populous than 42 individual U.S. states...
. The first and only state prison located in the county, it is also referenced as Los Angeles County State Prison, CSP-Los Angeles County. Only occasionally is the prison referred to as Lancaster State Prison, which was particularly avoided in 1992 partly to ease the stigma for Lancaster.
Facilities
As of Fiscal Year 2006/2007, LAC had a total of 1,519 staff and an annual operating budget of $100 million. As of September 2007, it had a design capacity of 2,300 but a total institution population of 4,976, for an occupancy rate of 216.3 percent.LAC's 262 acres (106 ha) include the following facilities:
- Level I housing – Open dormitories without a secure perimeter
- Level IV housing – Cells, fenced or walled perimeters, electronic security, more staff and armed officers both inside and outside the installation
- Reception Center (RC) – provides short term housing to process, classify and evaluate incoming inmate
History
Before the prison opened in 1993, Los Angeles County hosted no prisons but accounted for forty percent of California's state-prison inmates. "Most of Lancaster's civic leaders and residents" opposed the building of the prison, and four inmates escaped from LAC in its first year of operation. Nevertheless, by 2000 city residents' opinions of the prison had improved so much that a proposal to increase the proportion of maximum-security inmates received little criticism.A 2006-2007 conversion "of roughly half of" LAC's facilities decreased the number of maximum security inmates and increased the number of reception center inmates. Since reception center inmates are at the prison for shorter times than maximum security inmates, the conversion may "reduce the number of families that will relocate to the region to be near a family member who is in the prison" and "reduce the number of prisoners who will want to relocate to the area after serving their sentences or after being released on parole."
Former
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