Nevada County’s legislative representatives say they’re shocked and appalled by the closure of the Susanville Correctional Center. In announcing the closure, which takes effect by July of next year, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation cites the significant decrease in the state’s incarcerated population. It says there will be an estimated savings of 122-million dollars a year. But State Senator Brian Dahle and Assemblymember Megan Dahle say they received no prior notice and there was a lack of transparency and opportunity for public input. It also means the possible layoffs of a-thousand-80 staff members…

The Department says it will work with staff on possible relocation to other institutions. The 58-year-old prison, one of two in Lassen County, also trains inmate firefighters who staff 14 camps in Northern California…

Dahle says he’s pursuing Public Records Acts requests to expose the secretive channels through which officials, including the Newsom Administration, came to this decision. It’s the second such prison closure announced in recent months. The Susanville facility has been housing two-thousand-64 inmates.