TRACY, Calif. — California next year will close a prison holding about 1,500 male inmates.
The move Friday is Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest step to reduce the state’s incarceration footprint partly in response to the coronavirus and massive related budget cuts.
Officials say shuttering the 67-year-old Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, in the Central Valley east of San Francisco, will save about $182 million annually.
A series of new laws and ballot measures over nearly a decade significantly shrunk what once was the nation’s largest state prison population.
Newsom also approved the earlier releases of more than 10,000 inmates in response to the pandemic.
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Authorities said Antonio Thomas pressed the emergency button in his cell but when deputies arrived, they found him unresponsive on the ground.