Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It will cost taxpayers as much as $6 million to make repairs and clean up debris after a weekend prison riot damaged seven housing units and forced the transfer of more than 1,100 inmates, California’s corrections chief said Wednesday.
That figure will rise if the California Institution for Men in Chino decides to rebuild one of the units that was destroyed by fire, said Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate.
Another dormitory was damaged by fire, and many of its furnishings were destroyed in the melee that injured 175 inmates.
Cate said the state does not expect significant costs from transferring 1,155 inmates to other facilities after the racially motivated riot Saturday in San Bernardino County. Employees from the damaged prison are being sent to oversee those inmates at the other facilities, he said.
Cate said the department will try to find the money within its existing budget.
“It’s a mess,” he said of the riot area. “The tough part is we really don’t have any money in our emergency repair budget....When you have emergencies, now you’re having to cut other places to pay for it.”
Eight prisoners remained hospitalized Wednesday and two were in critical condition, said Michele Kane, state prisons spokeswoman.
The 735 inmates transferred to Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino were being held in two-man, locked cells separated by race to prevent further fighting, she said.
The unit where the inmates were being held can hold 800 people. Forty-one guards have been transferred from four other prisons to watch them, she said.
The 65 high-risk juvenile offenders who had been housed in that unit have been moved to another area on the juvenile campus.
The 385 juveniles at the facility are also on a modified lockdown to prevent them from getting near the adult inmates.
The remaining prisoners were taken to Calipatria State Prison, the Correctional Training Facility in Monterey County and the California Rehabilitation Center in Riverside County.
Kane said the closure of part of the Chino prison is putting a strain on the system.
“You can do the math. Anytime you have a loss of nearly 1,200 beds, it’s going to affect us,” she said.