Susanville

I encourage everyone to read the article Shanna posted about Susanville. Print it out and spend some time reading it carefully. It is alarming how what seemed like the "savior" of the town ended up destroying it. There is a lot in that article that one may think, "Yeah, but that wouldn't happen here. That's not the type of prison they are talking about."

However.

"Part of the problem was the state's bait-and-switch halfway through the process. Four months after voters approved a low to medium security facility, High Desert became a Level III and IV facility, housing the most violent offenders and those with 25-year to life terms...The implications of this newer security level were far-reaching."

This simple minimum-security prison idea has the potential to spiral out of control. Out of OUR control. The people of Morton and its surrounding community.

The article goes on to describe those far-reaching effects, many of which infiltrated people's homes via increased domestic violence, increased drugs and alcohol problems, increased youth violence. The long sentence terms brought in new residents who were there to be close to their inmate family members, bringing drugs and gang violence with them. The correctional officers who spent all day every day with the baddest our society has to offer couldn't help but let that leak into their homelife. A prison-contracted social worker who provides counseling to the prison employees explains, "The CO would say to me, 'my wife expects me to leave it at the door and be compassionate. It doesn't work like that.' It was awful."

It doesn't seem like that could happen here. But it could. Do we want to risk it?