Shasta County Sheriff Michael Johnson is backing away from a controversial site for a proposed corrections campus along the Sacramento River after months of opposition from nearby residents.
Johnson announced the decision Wednesday during a community listening session, saying public concerns and issues identified in a preliminary environmental review convinced him to reconsider the 90-acre site between Redding and Anderson. The sheriff still wants to expand alternative custody programs to address jail overcrowding but has not identified a new location.
Johnson said strong opposition from nearby residents, including a lawsuit challenging the project, pushed him to reconsider the site.
“I didn't do everything right in this process,” Johnson said. “I'm not a builder, I'm not a developer, I'm a cop. When I embarked on this project, I could have gone about it a little bit better.
Johnson said a preliminary environmental report also identified several issues with the site.
The sheriff has been seeking to expand the county's alternative custody program to help address overcrowding at the Shasta County Jail. The proposed campus would consolidate several correctional programs at one location.
Those plans included the Male Community Reentry Program, or MCRP, a state program that allows incarcerated people to serve the final portion of their sentences in a community-based facility while receiving rehabilitation and reentry services.
The Shasta County program would be the first operated through a partnership between the state and a county.
The facility would have more security restrictions than most MCRP facilities elsewhere in California. It would be privately operated with staffing and support from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Participants would be able to work in the community before ultimately returning to their home counties.
Johnson said state officials see the MCRP model as a possible part of the future of corrections in California.
"Primarily, that's going to be filled with Shasta County inmates," he said. "Shasta County inmates, if they don't go to this program, they would just be coming back to Shasta County with nothing, with no rehabilitation, with no programming."
A Standford University study of the program found an 11 percentage-point reduction in reconvictions among participants who spent at least nine months in the program.
The proposed campus could also have included a new, expanded county jail, though the county does not currently have enough funding for that project.
Johnson has not proposed another location for the corrections campus. He said the sheriff's office will conduct more community outreach as it considers its next steps.
