The group Save Rural Yolo County has been fighting hard to prevent a proposed re-entry facility in Madison. It appears that the economy has won out on the issue. On Tuesday, they won a major victory when the Yolo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to revoke the county’s agreement to build the facility.
Mike McGowan, who is the current chair of the Board of Supervisors denies that Save Rural Yolo County’s political pressure and lawsuit was a major factor in the board’s decision.
If one looks at the arguments put forth by Rural Yolo, one has to believe that the group was right all along.
The Vanguard spoke with Save Rural Yolo County Director of Governmental and Public Relations Robyn Rominger.
She expressed gratitude and excitement over the decision to scrap the facility.
“I was thrilled,” she said. “I was very happy that the Supervisors decided to withdraw their offer of Madison as a site for state prisons.”
“It’s what several of us having been working for several months,” she continued.
Residents such as Ms. Rominger expressed concern that this prison that was designed to hold 500 or so inmates would grow into a huge more general use prison and also the impact of travel miles on the environment.
“I was concerned about the effects on the environment, the carbon footprint would have expanded greatly from all the people that would be communicating to and from the community.”
There would be an estimated 300 employees, with most of those employees living far from the site, piling up millions of miles per year in driving miles.
In addition a number of family members would have to drive far to reach the prison, putting a huge burden on them.
But she was also concerned about the conversion of farm land into prison use.
“I was also concerned that this would take away valuable ag land,” she said. “Agriculture in Yolo County is a leading industry.”
“We need to protect our farmland it’s a valuable resource, you can’t take it for granted. In fact, I’m hoping that Yolo County Supervisors will begin to re-evaluate the value of agriculture to our economy. We have the most productive farm fields in the entire world, we have the highest yields.”
Ms. Rominger sees the encouragement of agribusiness development as a better way for the county to produce revenue rather than resorting to the development and imposition of prisons on rural residents.
One the strongest proponents of the re-entry facility was Yolo County Supervisor Matt Rexroad who said that he still supported the concept of the re-entry facility as a means to rehabilitate inmates and increase public safety.
Just two weeks ago, Supervisor Rexroad argued to the Vanguard that Madison was in a prime location for such a facility, but it appears now that neither the Department of Corrections nor the residents agreement.
“Madison was right along I-505, it’s right at Highway 16,” he told the Vanguard. “It’s scheduled for development under the general plan to be able to build that area out.”
Mr. Rexroad suggested that the loss of the re-entry facility and roughly $30 million to expand the overcrowded county jail was a “said day” for Yolo County. But residents of Madison didn’t see it that way.
Robyn Rominger expressed concern that this proposal might come back.
“I think it could come back,” she said. “I think that the corrections department wants to keep the lines of communication open with the county.”
“I’m not going to let my guard down. I’m going to try to stay on top of this, and in the future I am going to try to keep up with what’s going on with corrections and bringing prisons into Yolo County. I’m going to keep a close eye on what the Board of Supervisors is doing.”
Ms. Rominger said that a lot of people will be watching the Board of Supervisors more closely than in the past. Many did not realize that such a small group of people could do things that would have such a profound impact on their lives.
However, the resident of Madison have also shown themselves and others in this county, that vigilence and persistence pays off. Tonight they will go to sleep knowing that due to their efforts and toil over the past nine months, that at least for now, they will not have to worry about a prison being built in their community.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
The Board of Sups saw a $30 million dollar carrot dangling in front of them to improve the jail (I think that was the enticement) and could not resist. However, that carrot had strings attached – Yolo County had to house a re-entry facility – a facility no one wanted; a facility that had questionable value (why aren’t the current prisons giving prisoners the same sorts of assistance that the re-entry facility was going to provide?); a facility that very likely would have morphed into a full – blown prison when current jails became too overcrowded. Madison would have been saddled w the new reentry facility bc it had the fewest complainants and the BOS had control over Madison as within their “sphere of influence”, whereas the cities of Woodland, Davis and West Sac had the political power to say “NO”. Who is kidding who, this reentry facility was nothing more than a foot in the door to building a new prison to relieve current overcrowding. Matt Rexroad should rethink this one…