Rumors persist that the Preston Youth Correctional Facility in Ione may be in danger of closing, with city and county officials measuring the potential loss of hundreds of local jobs. Officials have agreed to continue lobbying state officials to keep Preston, pictured with its historic castle nearby, open.

Photo by: Scott Thomas Anderson

The threatened closure of the venerable Preston Youth Correctional Facility led the city of Ione staff to explore the extent of the danger.

At Tuesday night's Ione City Council meeting, City Manager Kim Kerr presented the findings of research done to determine what percentage of Preston and Mule Creek State Prison employees live in the city's ZIP code. Of the 530 employees at Preston, 101 live in the Ione ZIP code, 95640. Another 100 live in other parts of Amador County. For comparison, 205 Mule Creek employees live in 95640, and a total of 438 live in the county.

Appearing at the meeting was the county's District 2 supervisor, Richard Forster, who told the council exactly why he had set off the alarm about the potential closure. "I put this possibility out so that people would get excited," he said. "If I lose my job, I have another job. Most people don't."

The statistic that more than 300 employees at Ione's two correctional facilities live in Ione reinforced Forster's statement that "this is a company town, largely because of Preston. We have had generations of people who worked there."

Councilman Jim Ulm agreed, saying, "The people who work there also contribute to the economy. They come down for lunch, buy things, get a parking ticket, or whatever."

"We have to fight this tooth and nail," insisted Councilman Skip Schaufel. "We need to get everyone, not just in Ione, to sit down at their typewriters and get the word out to them."

Bill Sessa, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which enveloped juvenile justice in 2005, provided some additional numbers - 347 youthful offenders are wards at Preston and, by his count, there is a staff of 541.

Asked about the seemingly upside-down ratio, Sessa explained, "The staffing for youth is very different. Most of the staffing is for education and treatment programs - teachers, counselors and clinicians." Sessa also pointed out that the facility operates 24/7.

The city is preparing letters to be sent to state officials, including California's 1st District Sen. Dave Cox and 10th District Assemblywoman Alyson Huber.

Of the wards, Sessa said, "They're not going anywhere."

But another CDCRR official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, suggested facilities like Preston and the Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp would be shuttered in five to 10 years. It's part of the shift the department is going through in an attempt to shed expenses for a dwindling number of youthful offenders, the official said.

Last July, the Little Hoover Commission found that the state is spending half a billion dollars annually on a youth offender population that has declined from 10,000 in state facilities a decade ago to fewer than 2,000 today. According to the independent commission, the significant reduction in the youth offender population has been fueled by declining arrest rates for juveniles and by policy changes - most recently SB 81 - the 2007 realignment legislation that shifted responsibility for all but the most serious and violent offenders from the state to the counties. The landmark legislation also provided ongoing funding to counties for this group of youth offenders.