Interviews with incarcerated people formerly housed at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison (CVSP) in Blythe revealed a harried process to relocate nearly 2,000 prisoners and hundreds of support staff this year after the state bumped up the date of the controversial prison closure first announced in 2022.
“They would just get on the microphone, start calling out names, and [be] told to pack your stuff and that you were leaving,” Kenthy Porter, who was transferred from CVSP to its sister facility Ironwood State Prison (ISP).
The prison was initially slated to close in 2025, but a spokesperson for the California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (CDCR) said in a statement to The Riverside Record that it would be “deactivated” by the end of the year “[i]n an effort to prioritize fiscal responsibility.”
According to the department, the closure will result in estimated one-time savings of $87 million this fiscal year and $148 million savings next fiscal year.
The community waged a years-long campaign in an effort to stop the closure, which the city said would result in a loss of 850 jobs and a significant decrease in revenue.
“‘Oh, we’re closing your prison. Good luck.’ That’s really what it felt like this whole time,” said Mallory Crecelius, interim city manager and city clerk.
An economic report estimated Blythe would need an injection of nearly $25 million dollars in order to thrive and become economically sustainable.
“The community as a whole will be impacted by the closure, and it already has,” Mayor Joseph “Joey” DeConinck wrote in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom this past July, citing concerns about the decline in school enrollment as a result. Newsom has yet to respond, Crecelius said.
Since then, those formerly incarcerated at CVSP have been adjusting to life in new prisons.
Porter said one of the biggest issues has been that Chuckawalla, as a lower security prison, allowed those housed there to live in open dorm settings, walk freely in and out of the building and even go outside at night.
“One of the things that was developed was a trust-based, open atmosphere,” he said. “There were no doors.”
But many, like Porter, were sent to higher security prisons, he said, where there’s more security, more locks and less freedom.
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“You have to get through two doors just to get out to the recreation yard and then still through more doors to get to any kind of area like education, the chapel, the gym, medical,” he said.
Morgan Smith, who was transferred to Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, about 20 miles from the Oregon border, said that he and other incarcerated people had music players, clothes and craft supplies taken because they didn’t conform to regulations at their new prisons.
“I had an art box that looks like a clear suitcase almost, and they’re like, ‘Well, this is not allowed,’” he said. “But like in Chuckawalla, I was actually a part of the beading program.”
Smith said he also has his earphones taken because they didn’t have his name etched into them.
“And I was like, ‘Well, neither does my battery charger, but I can have that,’” he said.
Others, like Alexander Valentine, who was also transferred to ISP, were concerned about being able to continue their education.
“There was no college coordinator on the yard when I got here,” he said. “I’m in the middle of a master’s program.”
All three men described the transfer process from Chuckawalla as an anxiety-inducing flow of rapid announcements followed by quick departures.
“As a person who’s serving a life sentence, we understand that when we leave somebody, we may never see the person again,” Porter said.
The closure has also impacted prison staff, who over the last 10 months have taken to social media to talk with one another about the transfer of CVSP staff to prisons across the state. Some correctional officers reported overstaffed facilities and shared concerns that it would cut into their overtime pay.
A CDCR spokesperson declined to answer specific questions about prison staff and correctional officers, but said the department “continues to work on staff placements.”
One officer who spoke with The Record on the condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said that some recently transferred officers were attempting to get moved back to desert prisons.
The distance from family and established communities has hit incarcerated people hard as well. Smith’s spouse now has to fly from Los Angeles to visit him in Crescent City, he said, and other family visits have become much more difficult.
“It’s kind of hard,” he said. “We didn’t know it was gonna happen like this.”
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