State To Close California Rehabilitation Center In Norco By Fall 2026

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Monday announced plans to close the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) in Norco by the fall of 2026 in response to lower prison population projects and the need for cost reductions.

“CDCR is committed to managing its resources responsibly to enhance public safety and best serve the people of California,” the department said in a release announcing the closure. “California’s 2025-26 budget called for a prison closure, one of many challenging actions required to address the state’s fiscal position.”

CRC, a medium-security Level II correctional facility, has a current inmate population of approximately 2,800 and employs about 1,200 people. Its closure is expected to save the state approximately $150 million annually.

The city of Norco, as well as community organizers, have been pushing for the prison’s closure for more than a decade. In a previous interview with The Riverside Record for a story about the closure of Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe, Norco Mayor Pro Tem Robin Grundmeyer, who was mayor at the time, said discussions to close the prison started back in 2012.

“It’s not something that’s new for our community,” she said at the time. “It’s something that has been discussed and brought up for several years now.”

According to Kelli Anderson, the city’s communications manager, the city found out about the closure Monday when it was announced. And though the potential impact of the closure on the city was not yet known, she said the city was in the process of learning more.

CDCR said it was “taking every effort to mitigate the impact,” throughout the deactivation process and would provide support to the community and workforce with an economic resiliency plan. Additional details were not immediately available.

Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), which last year held a rally outside of the prison calling for its closure, called the news a “testament to years of community advocacy.”

“Five years ago, our community of people most impacted by incarceration organized a list of prisons to prioritize for closure and CRC is at the top of that list,” Amber-Rose Howard, executive director for the organization said in a news release. “In moments like this, when community organizing and administrative change aligns, we celebrate. We must also consider what opportunities we have to responsibly reinvest saved funds from closed prisons.”

CURB is now calling on the state to facilitate the smooth transfer of the people incarcerated at CRC, ensuring continued access to credit earning and educational programming and avoiding what the group called “preventable disruptions” like those experienced by people formerly incarcerated at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison. The group is also calling on the state to reinvest the savings into “economic development initiatives and social services in Norco and neighboring communities.”

The facility was first opened in 1928 as the Lake Norconian Club, a resort for Hollywood’s elite. After the hotel closed as a result of the Great Depression, it was reopened in 1941 as a Naval hospital treating some of the first survivors from the attack on Pearl Harbor, according to the Lake Norconian Club Foundation.

The property was then donated to the state in 1962 for use as a narcotics center as part of the state’s Civil Addict Program. The facility began housing people convicted of felonies as well as those confined for drug rehabilitation due to statewide prison overcrowding in the 1980s.

The Lake Norconian Club Foundation, as well as the city, have advocated for the preservation and rehabilitation of the property.

“For years, the city of Norco has advocated for the adaptive reuse of the Norconian Hotel and Resort property,” Anderson said in an email to The Record. “The city of Norco remains hopeful that, one day, this historic gem will be restored to its former glory as a resort and will become a regional economic driver.”