Residents of a small California desert town are furious over plans to close their last major employer amid fears it will end the “dying” town forever.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, 56, announced in 2022 that the Golden State would close four prisons, including Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe, which is expected to close this year.
The city, which is located in Riverside County near the Arizona border, was already struggling, and many of its 18,000 residents fled to Phoenix or the Coachella Valley.
Now they fear the elimination of nearly 1,000 government jobs in the area will be the final straw.
“We know there will be a ripple effect across all sectors,” Interim City Manager Mallory Crecelius told the Imperial Valley Press. “But we really have no idea how much it’s going to impact.”
Residents of Blythe, California, on plans to close their last major employer: Chuckawalla Valley State Prison
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, 56, announced in 2022 that the state would close four prisons, including Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe.
Concerns about the future of the isolated town have been rumbling for some time, with an article from a 2022 Riverside County civil investigation titled ‘Blythe town is dying‘ drawing attention to their difficulties.
‘The fortunes of the community have changed dramatically in the last two decades. “Most of the family farms are gone, the businesses are gone, empty houses and buildings dot the streets,” he said.
“The city’s tax revenues are stagnant or declining and the younger population, with few opportunities for growth and success, has fled west to the Coachella Valley or east to the expanding suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona.”
While Riverside County’s population has grown 8.5 percent in the last decade, Blythe’s population (not including inmates) has decreased 19.5 percent.
The city was also ranked third-worst out of 470 California cities based on its financial health in 2019, according to the report.
Blythe leaders were reportedly furious about the report, The Press reported, and are now fighting hard to save their prison.
They even hired a PR firm and called their campaign ‘Save Chuck.’
Chuckawalla Prison employs 801 people, including more than 400 correctional officers.
Blythe officials are unsure why Newsom’s office selected the Chuckawalla prison for closure and have filed dozens of public records requests to find out why.
Chuckawalla Prison employs 801 people, including more than 400 correctional officers.
Interim City Manager Mallory Crecelius said 40 public records requests filed to learn why Chuckawalla was chosen to close instead of other state prisons were “denied.”
‘Those requests have been denied. The state was not giving us that information. Either they don’t have it or they simply refuse to provide it to us,” Crecelius told The Press.
They have suggested that the government choose another location that is not so dependent on its prison for economic prosperity.
They proposed that the former California Rehabilitation Center in Norco take the blame, and say it is willing to do so, according to The Press.
However, their efforts have fallen on deaf ears.
When DailyMail.com contacted the Governor’s Office for comment, we were referred to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
A department spokesperson said: ‘In an effort to prioritize fiscal responsibility, CDCR has accelerated the closure of Chuckawalla Valley State Prison (CVSP). CDCR anticipates CVSP will be deactivated by the end of the year.
“CDCR and Administration are working to minimize the impact on staff, the City of Blythe and the surrounding community.”
‘The State is working closely with stakeholders to help support workers and foster a bottom-up economic resilience plan; they added.
In August, the Employment Development Department announced it had awarded nearly $1 million to the Riverside County Workforce Development Division to assist Chuckawalla employees after the closure.
Pictured: The agricultural area on the outskirts of Blythe.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said the prison was chosen in an “effort to prioritize fiscal responsibility.” Those displaced from their jobs will receive government aid for job training (pictured: Blythe)
The funds will help those affected “obtain education, training and job resources that will help them find good careers in high-demand industries such as healthcare, information technology and industrial technology,” according to Department of Employment Development.
The federal funding awarded was provided by the United States Department of Labor.
Despite this, many Blythe residents fear that they will not be able to find a decent paying job in their area without a degree.
Local resident Jamie Browning, who worked as a correctional officer at Chuckawalla, told The Press: “I would have to move somewhere else because where am I going to get a job that makes that kind of money with a high school education?” I mean, you have to do it. You have no choice.’
Another resident, Maricruz Barela, 20, who lives in the town because of school and her mother, told the outlet: “There is nothing, we have nothing.”
The announcement of the prison closure came after the state’s prison population fell by half over the past decade to 96,000 incarcerated people, according to The Press.
In recent years, the Democratic state has relaxed bail laws, preventing many criminals from wearing orange jumpsuits and decreasing the need for more facilities.
The announcement of the prison closure came after the state’s prison population dropped by half over the past decade to 96,000 incarcerated people.
As for Blythe’s future, some locals have proposed building a logistics center or reopening its prison as an immigration detention center to help keep the city afloat, according to the Press. But these projects would take time.
There is also a provision to close five more prisons by 2027, which would save the state more than $1 billion a year, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
But the prison is not the only problem in the area.
Getting water into the city from the Metropolitan Water District, which sends water to Los Angeles and other Southern California cities, can be difficult.
In many cases, Blythe farmers have been forced to leave their fields barren as competition for the precious liquid increases, according to The Press.
This is also not the first time Blythe has almost gone extinct.
In its cowboy days, it was an agricultural boomtown, had a major railroad stop, and plenty of access to the Colorado River.
But when I-10 was built in 1972, area residents began to disperse.
The only thing that could save him then was to keep his prison open.