Overview
- Advocacy groups, which held a Tuesday news conference in Dublin, urged the Bureau of Prisons to tear down the 87-acre complex and asked residents to submit comments before the June 1 deadline.
- A 2,731-page Bureau of Prisons assessment released May 1 recommends deactivation and details mold, asbestos, leaking sewage, diesel contamination, lead paint, failing roofs, and cracked pavements.
- The report estimates repairs at about $26 million over three years or $118 million over ten, noting interiors that range from worn to severely damaged and drywall buildings that pose fire risks.
- Deactivation could let the General Services Administration transfer the site to another agency such as DHS/ICE, though ICE and DHS said in February there was no effort to convert it to immigration detention.
- Local leaders passed resolutions against any detention reuse, and advocates point to ICE’s recent expansion on former prison sites and the lack of any ICE facility north of Bakersfield as reasons to keep pressure on the process.