Dear CalMatters reader,

Correctional officers at the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) in Norco have started writing Attorney General Rob Bonta to to keep the prison open, presenting it as an option to alleviate the overpopulation in county jails.

California began placing some convicted felons in county jails in 2011, after the Supreme Court ruled that the overcrowding in state prisons resulted in cruel and unusual punishment. Now, according to the lawsuit Attorney General Rob Bonta brought against Los Angeles County on Sept. 8, the county’s jails are overcrowded and uninhabitable.

In March, 878 inmates held at Los Angeles County jail were felon convicts, according to a Sheriff’s Department report. That’s 7% of the population.

“They’re causing the issue by keeping them in counties, so they say their numbers are down, so they’re closing prisons,” said Correctional Officer Jeremiah Rohbock, who wrote the initial letter.

The Norco prison has open beds, low costs per inmate and more rehabilitation and certification programs than most prisons, Rohbock added.

The CDCR’s weekly report says that the prison currently has 2,460 inmates, and was designed for 1,822. Rohbock said the facility has enough beds to add additional inmates. 

There are eight criteria the CDCR uses to identify which prisons close. Those include population trends, operational costs, facility condition, geographic considerations, impact on staff, program availability, legislative directives and public safety considerations.

The CDCR did not respond to multiple requests for comment on why the Norco prison was chosen to be closed, the prison’s cost-per-inmate or the potential impact of convicts being held in county jails. 

Their Aug. 4 announcement that the CRC will close by fall 2026 cited projections of lower prison populations and the importance of cost savings. It did not specifically say why the Norco prison was chosen out of the 31 prisons currently operated by the state. A short description of the facility mentioned its origins as a luxury hotel and a Naval hospital.

“As someone who’s worked here at CRC for 15 years, we knew that CRC has this aura about it, that they feel this is some old naval base that has been converted in the 1950’s, and it’s been falling apart,” said Rohbock.

The old hotel, he said, isn’t part of the prison’s operations. The majority of buildings are modular, and maintained as part of the inmates’ rehabilitation programs, he said.

As far as the cost, he said the prison is the fifth-most cost effective per inmate.

The letters also invited Bonta to visit the prison.

The Attorney General’s Office declined to comment on the letters. “We are seeking to compel much-needed, comprehensive reform to Los Angeles County jails through our lawsuit, and our complaint includes all we are able to share at this time,” they wrote.

A federal judge’s July 11 order for federal agents to stop using race as a factor in immigration stops had no impact, even before it was overruled by the Supreme Court on Sept. 8, says Yazmin Mercado of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ). The ICIJ is a San Bernardino-based coalition of 35 organizations that provide legal assistance and advocacy to immigrants.

The ICIJ operates a hotline for families of people arrested by federal agents. Data gathered from those calls indicate 227 people have been arrested since June 14. The amounts of calls to the hotline had not changed following the Supreme Court’s order.

“They weren’t following the TRO to begin with. That’s why we aren’t seeing a difference,” said Mercado.

Questions sent to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Customs (ICE) and Border Patrol regarding operations in the Inland Empire following the Supreme Court ruling were not answered. A DHS staffer instead sent a Sept. 8 press release that denied “indiscriminate stops” were being made.

“What makes someone a target of ICE is if they are illegally in the U.S. DHS enforces federal immigration law without fear, favor, or prejudice,” the release said.

I’m Aidan McGloin, the new reporter for CalMatters’ Inland Empire newsletter. It’s a bit odd to be on this end of the email— I've been a reader since the newsletter launched September of last year.

I am excited and grateful to be reporting on this area that I call home. I was born, raised and currently live in Redlands. I spent my teenage summers hiking the San Bernardino mountains, volunteering at the A.K. Smiley Public Library or gardening for a neighbor. For the last four years, I have reported on the Inland Empire’s courthouses for both the now-closed Follow Our Courts, and, following that, my own publication, Inland Empire Law Weekly. 

The IE has a lot going on that often gets overlooked.

San Bernardino is the largest county by area in the continental United States. Riverside County is 10th-largest by population, and San Bernardino is 14th-largest. Our combined population of 4.6 million people makes us larger than 26 states, including Oregon, Connecticut, Utah and Nevada. Yet, few people outside of our counties can recognize our names. 

Our population somehow manages to keep itself moving forward, and our elected leaders keep on managing our finances and programs. My job will be to explain those decisions, and give you as much of the information required to participate in our local governance as I can.

While you are here, please sign up for the Inland Empire newsletter and let me know what kinds of stories you’d love to read.

And please add my email to your contacts:  inlandempire@calmatters.org

Thanks for reading,