CDCR to shutter Riverside County prison next year to cut corrections expenses
California will shutter a prison in Riverside County next year as part of the multiyear effort to reduce the state’s prison expenses as the average incarcerated population continues to decline.
On Monday, the corrections department announced it would close the California Rehabilitation Center in the fall of 2026 to accommodate for the state’s lowest prison population since the late 1980s. Today, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s incarcerated population is roughly 91,000, down more than 80,000 people since 2006.
“CDCR is committed to managing its resources responsibly to enhance public safety and best serve the people of California,” the department said in a news release. “California’s 2025-26 budget called for a prison closure, one of many challenging actions required to address the state’s fiscal position.”
The Riverside prison currently employs nearly 1,200 staff and houses roughly 2,766 people. CDCR did not immediately respond to questions about whether prison staff would be transferred to other facilities. The department said it was taking efforts to mitigate impacts on staff and the inmate population throughout the deactivation process, which will include the creation of an economic resilience plan for the local workforce.
When California Rehabilitation Center shuts down operations next year, it will be the fifth prison closure, including one privately owned facility, since Gov. Gavin Newsom signaled his intent to shutter prisons in 2020. The governor initially cited California’s shrinking inmate population, which has steadily declined since 2011, as the reason for shutting these facilities.
Despite the closures and declining prison population, CDCR’s budget has grown roughly 45% between 2015 and 2023. That growth can largely be attributed to staffing costs and expenses related to a 2011 court order regarding prison overcrowding.
These closures have saved California $966 million annually, according to the Finance Department. CDCR said closing the California Rehabilitation Center would save an extra $150 million in general fund spending each year.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association blasted the state’s decision as a “disruptive move with serious consequences,” in a Monday statement. CCPOA President Neil Flood said that prison closures result in forced transfers and force some officers to leave the careers in public safety.
“Shuttering CRC eliminates essential physical space that relieves overcrowding, supports rehabilitative programming, and maintains a workable ratio between staff and incarcerated individuals,” Flood said. “This balance is critical to safety for all Californians: reducing capacity while raising population density leads to more violence overall, both within institutions and beyond their walls.”
The California Rehabilitation Center, which is in Norco, a city east of Los Angeles, was previously the site of the Lake Norconian Club, a luxury resort that opened in 1928, according to CDCR. President Franklin D. Roosevelt turned the hotel into a Naval hospital in 1941.
Over two decades later, the federal government donated the facility to California to be used as a narcotics center, CDCR said. California began using the facility as a prison in the 1980s.
This story was originally published August 4, 2025 at 4:12 PM.
