260 SCC Inmates Will Be Evaluated For Transfer

Jamestown, CA — Within the next 60 to 90 days, state prison officials will begin involuntarily transferring a group of California inmates to institutions in Mississippi, Arizona and Oklahoma.

It is an effort to deal with overcrowding in the state´s 33 prisons. Lt. Kenny Calhoun with the Sierra Conservation Center says the inmates will be from prisons that are over capacity. Besides the SCC´s dormitories being overcrowded, he says the facility has around 450 inmates housed in its gymnasium and another 120 on day room floors.

Calhoun says 260 inmates from the SCC have been identified as candidates for transfer and will be evaluated in the coming weeks. He says they are primarily those with immigration and custom enforcement agency holds. This refers to inmates from other countries that are due for deportation following release.

Calhoun says prisoners who are in minimum security will not be transferred. He says it is so they can work in the minimum support facilities outside the institution and assist the state with wildland fire fighting.

Written by BJ Hansen