Nevada County’s State Senator, as well as gubernatorial candidate, is taking the opportunity to once again blast Governor Newsom, as well as Legislative Democrats, with the closure of a prison in his district. A Lassen County Judge has dismissed Susanville’s lawsuit challenging the closing, announced about a year ago, of its 59-year-old Correctional Center. The lawsuit, among other things, stated that there had not been a proper review of environmental and economic impacts. Brian Dahle says he opposed language inserted into this year’s State Budget, exempting the closure from such reviews…

click to listen to Brian Dahle

Under the exemption, the prison will be closed by June of next year. The pandemic accelerated reductions in the state prison population, prompting criminal justice organizations to call on Newsom to speed up closures, which is also opposed by Dahle…

click to listen to Brian Dahle

The Legislative Analyst’s Office says California could save one-and-a-half billion dollars a year by closing five prisons by 2025. The Susanville facility has been the town’s largest employer, with about a-thousand people working there. It has 16-hundred inmates.