'Nothing Will Be the Same': A Prison Town Weighs a Future Without a Prison - The New Yo... - 5 views
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now almost every aspect of the town’s economy and civic life, from real estate to local schools, depends on the prison
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Perhaps inevitably, then, the plans to close the prison have become political. Most of the town’s leaders say they believe the plans are a vendetta from Mr. Newsom to punish them for their conservative politics, rather than the fruition of efforts over many years to change the criminal justice system, some approved by voters through ballot measures.
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The announcement that California would close two prisons was hailed as a milestone by activists, the culmination of years of new sentencing laws and the work of liberal prosecutors that sharply reduced the number of people in prisons across the state. At their most crowded, California prisons housed more than 160,000 people. Today, they hold just under 100,000.
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A town in California protests the closing of their local prison, arguing that it destroy their town and economy. As inmate numbers decline, Governor Newsom announced the close of two prisons, and this town is taking it as an attack on their conservative political views. -
This is so interesting! I've always wondered about this dynamic, between prison and prison town and state legislatures. I wonder if this holds true at San Quentin. -
This is a great article! I sent it to my whole family to read because weirdly enough, we've been to Susanville 3 or 4 times. It's just such a difficult situation and its interesting to see the mindset of the people in the town. Although it is easier said than done, it's perplexing that the people are so devoted to preventing the closure rather than diversifying the economy or striking some kind of compromise. This article goes to show just how deeply prisons are ingrained into the structure of American society and how they function first and foremost as an industry.
