Death row prisoner transfers spark outrage in Southern California community
Officials in two San Bernardino County cities are outraged over the transfer of more than two dozen death row prisoners from San Quentin Rehabilitation Center to the California Institution for Men, a facility they say is already overcrowded and badly in need of repairs.
City and county leaders in Chino and Chino Hills held a press conference Monday to voice their concerns over the transfers, calling them a danger to the local community.
“One inmate killed a victim with an axe during a home invasion robbery,” Chino Police Chief Kevin Mensen said during the event. “Another one beat and tortured a woman to death.”
So far, 39 condemned men have been transferred to CIM, Chino Mayor Eunice Ulloa said.
“I’m outraged that these death row prisoners have been transferred to the California Institution for Men,” the mayor added. “This is a prison that is in dire need of repair to keep these dangerous prisoners housed.”
Many in the community are worried about potential safety issues for surrounding schools, homes and businesses.
“Our biggest concern, obviously, is we have children here,” David Dellos, who along with his wife owns a dance studio across from CIM, told KTLA’s Shelby Nelson. “There should be some added security that would provide us some ability to think that we’re relatively safe.”
As of May 1, an audit found that CIM, which is designed to hold 1,604 inmates, currently houses more than 2,200, meaning capacity is already bursting at the seams.
The death row transfers have also opened old wounds in the local communities where condemned inmate Kevin Cooper is concerned. Cooper escaped from CIM in 1983 and brutally murdered four people, including Mary Ann Hughes’ 11-year-old son.
“The nightmare of what my child had to go through in his last moments will be with me forever,” Hughes said at the news conference.
The California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation says it is phasing out its death row unit at San Quentin and that transfers are placed in institutions with an electrified secure perimeter. They say the move is part of the Condemned Inmate Transfer Program, which falls under voter-approved Prop. 66.
That measure stipulates that condemned inmates must participate in prison programs that would help them pay restitution to victims.
Critics, however, say that ends up moving these men to lower-level facilities that are not always equipped with as much security.
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“If they go to CIM, they’re going to be housed in general population,” San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said. “They’re perhaps going to be housed in different areas within prison.”
In a statement, CDCR said in part:
“While the 2018 facility walkaway is troubling, CDCR can assure the public that these individuals will never be housed in that facility. Since 2008, CDCR has completed a variety of repairs and improvements at CIM and is currently addressing other facility improvements.”
The city of Chino has put together a petition that will be sent to Governor Gavin Newsom and they are asking the community to sign it.
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