LOS ANGELES, CA — Anti-prison advocates warned earlier this month of a danger that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is considering reopening California prisons, and calling it a waste of state-funded “warm shutdowns.”
“It’s vital that people understand. The federal tactics targeting migrants today could easily be turned against someone you love tomorrow, even if they are a citizen,” stated Brian Kaneda, Deputy Director of Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), in a CURB statement.
Three California recently-closed prison facilities, including federal prison FCI Dublin, state-owned Chuckawalla Valley State Prison (CVSP), and privately run California City Correctional Facility, are at risk of reopening as detention centers under “intensified federal immigration raids and arrests,” CURB said.
CVSP is one of many currently in the “warm shutdown” status, according to CURB, noting the “warm shutdown” phenomenon is a facility to be “minimally staffed, yet still fully functional,” noting the cost of warm shutdowns to California taxpayers is “staggering.”
“Since Deuel Vocational Institution (DVI) closed in 2021, California has likely spent $146 million keeping the empty facility maintained,” said CURB, noting California Correctional Center (CCC) and the California City Correctional Facility have cost taxpayers over $87 million and $81 million, respectively, despite being closed in 2023 and 2024.
In light of sexual abuse charges against correctional officers at FCI Dublin late 2024, CBS Bay Area reported ICE officials recently touring the particular facility and “assessing its reuse for immigrant detention.”
“FCI Dublin is a horrible place. It needs to be torn down or repurposed to better serve the community,” Kaneda commented.
The California City Correctional Facility was also confirmed by ACLU to have ICE’s consideration after GEO Group, the private prison company behind the facility, proposed for it to be repurposed back in 2024.
“Treating incarcerated people with dignity doesn’t require hundreds of millions in new infrastructure spending,” Kaneda explained. “We need tangible solutions to improve public safety outcomes for everyone—not a rebranding effort that makes us feel better about caging people.”
CURB said some California lawmakers support Proposition 36, increasing penalties for specific crimes, in justifying pausing prison closures.
However, Kaneda emphasized the bigger financial issue of state prisons remaining in “costly ‘warm shutdown’ status,” calling for them to be “permanently closed as well,” urgently adding, “right now.”
“This is what government waste actually looks like.” – Brian Kaneda, Deputy Director of Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB)
“This is what government waste actually looks like,” Kaneda warned. “Keeping empty prisons ready for ICE wastes critical funds that could go toward housing, education, or healthcare—especially at a time when federal threats to cut Medi-Cal funding loom.”
However, additional concerns from activists come from Gov. Newsom’s “California Model” initiative, according to CURB.
While the “California Model” is inspired from Norway’s prison initiative that is considered successful, CURB warned Newsom’s initiative is “vague” when describing the practices and outcomes.
“We absolutely support culture change inside prisons and the investment in the programs led by incarcerated people. At the same time, it must be acknowledged that severe crises are plaguing California’s prisons that require immediate attention,” said Kaneda.
According to CURB, investing in this model could “lead to expensive infrastructure projects that would erase the savings created by prison closure.”
The California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), after noting that the state will currently save $900 million annually from closed prisons, recommended closing five more prisons, saving taxpayers at “least $1.5 billion annually,” CURB said in its statement.
However, Newsom’s initiative can undo this progress if the California Model proceeds, according to the “deeply troubling” concerns listed by CURB, including mental health emergencies, widespread abuses at women’s prisons, and growing heat, fire, and climate-related hazards, ultimately risking the normalization of expanded incarceration.
“This is a very serious moment in history,” Kaneda said. “At a time when forcibly disappearing someone off the street is becoming normalized, California shouldn’t focus on legitimizing new ways to sustain or expand prisons—even when framed as well-intentioned reforms like the California Model.”
Instead of the California Model’s “dynamic security,” which CURB stated will do “little to address the actual issues at the root of prison violence,” the advocates urged Gov. Newsom and the state legislature to: fully end warm shutdowns; legally prohibit reuse of closed facilities; and repurpose prisons for community needs.
“This issue impacts everyone,” Kaneda said, adding these prisons “must permanently close. Reinvest those savings into our communities and firmly resist every attempt—from ICE or elsewhere—to expand incarceration. Taking this stand now is essential to the safety of all of us, our economy, and our shared future.”
