Residents, officials fear new jail at Mira Loma could hike crime

By Karen Maeshiro, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 04/11/2008 08:31:48 PM PDT


PALMDALE - Residents and city officials are concerned over a plan to open a new jail at the Mira Loma Detention Center, believing it could lead to increased crime and other problems for local neighborhoods.

"We don't want it here. The immediate response of myself, citizens, people who I have talked to is, `We have got one, thank you very much,"' Lancaster Councilwoman-elect Sherry Marquez said, referring to the state prison already in Lancaster.

"Go look for another piece of property to put the jail. We've got our share."

The plan recently announced by Sheriff Lee Baca's department calls for a 1,152-bed jail to be built for men at the detention center.

The proposal is part of a nearly $700 million plan to revamp the nation's largest jail system and address overcrowding. Community meetings are being held this month on the issue with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Once a World War II training base for military pilots, later a state prison and a county jail mostly for drunk drivers, Mira Loma reopened in 1997 as a detention facility for immigrants awaiting deportation.

Mira Loma holds about 900 men. Detainees also include people seeking asylum on political or religious grounds, or immigrants contesting federal efforts to deport them.

The Sheriff's Department runs the facility under a contract with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

County supervisors were poised to vote on the proposal for a new center at the site last month, but delayed action after city officials said they had not been briefed.
"I can tell you the initial reaction is not positive," Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said. "But we need to get the details. The sheriff wants to do that."

Sheriff's Capt. Bobby Denham, commander of the Palmdale station, said Baca is hoping the community meetings will help alleviate public concerns and answer questions about the proposed facility.

"He understands people are concerned about what goes into the community here. He's reaching out to provide information and answer questions," Denham said.

Denham said the proposed Mira Loma facility would hold all levels of inmates, not just high-security prisoners.

Inmates stay in jail an average of 46 days, he added.

But some local residents are concerned that expanded jail facilities could bring more crime into local neighborhoods.

"It is so sad that Los Angeles consistently wants to use the Antelope Valley as their dumping ground whether it's for their sludge, trash or their inner-city problem prisoners," said Bruce B. Hailstone, a Lancaster resident and Quartz Hill-based Realtor.

"The saddest part is that those prisoners do not come up here to just be housed. They bring with them family that want to live closer to their prisoners.

"That is the primary element that has quite literally had a huge negative impact on the quality of life here in terms of gang activity, graffiti or crime."

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