California Correctional Institution (CCI) is a supermax state prison located in Cummings Valley, west of the city of Tehachapi in southern California. CCI is sometimes referred to as "Tehachapi prison" or "Tehachapi". As stated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, its overall mission is "to incarcerate and control felons, while providing the opportunity for meaningful work, training and other programs. The prison provides programs for those inmates who are willing to work and participate fully in available programs."
Video California Correctional Institution
Facilities
CCI has 1,650 acres (670 ha) including Level I ("Open dormitories with a secure perimeter") housing; Level II ("Open dormitories with secure perimeter fences and armed coverage") housing; Level IV ("Cells, fenced or walled perimeters, electronic security, more staff and armed officers both inside and outside the installation") housing; a Security Housing Unit (SHU, which is "the most secure area within a Level IV prison designed to provide maximum coverage"); and a Reception Center (RC) which "provides short term housing to process, classify and evaluate incoming inmates." As of March 2012, the facility's total population was 4,753, or 170.8 percent of its design capacity of 2,783.
Maps California Correctional Institution
History
The original California Institution for Women, the first women's facility in California, opened on the site of what is now CCI in 1932. It was sometimes referred to as "Tehachapi", as in the 1940s films Maltese Falcon and Double Indemnity. The institution was "run for many years independently from the correctional system for men" but beginning in 1944 was gradually brought under the control of the California Department of Corrections. After the 1952 Kern County earthquake on July 21, "made the brick dormitories unsafe", the institution was closed and the 417 prisoners were sent to the new California Institution for Women in Corona.
The prison was reopened in 1954 as CCI, an all-men's prison. In 1985-1986, maximum and medium security facilities were added to it. The Southern Maximum Security Complex at Tehachapi was "touted as the most advanced in the country", but was also "called a 'white elephant' and a 'Cadillac' because it took so long to build and cost so much".
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger "directed inmate firefighters and staff from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation", including those from CCI, to help fight the October 2007 California wildfires.
In culture
The women's prison has been frequently mentioned in popular film and radio, particularly during the noir era.
- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- Double Indemnity (1944)
- Nocturne (1946)
- The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
- Out of the Past (1947)
- The Hunted (1948)
- Criss Cross (1949)
- The Story of Molly X (1949)
- 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982)
The Black Echo, 1991
- Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon (page 106 (Italian translation)) (2009)
- Dragnet radio drama series
Notable inmates
- Barbara Graham, served 5 years in CCI for perjury, was later executed for murder.
- Juan-Carlos Cruz, Celebrity chef sentenced to 9 years in 2010 for soliciting murder.
- Lyle Menendez was sent to CCI in September 1996 to serve a life term without the possibility of parole; however, as of 2003 he was in Mule Creek State Prison.
- Art Pepper, jazz musician, 1964-1965
- Rafael Pérez was transferred from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood to CCI in July 2001; later that month he was released from CCI and paroled.
- Alonza Thomas Jr, focus of a 2014 PBS Frontline documentary entitled "Stickup Kid." Sentenced to 13 years at California Correctional Institution for a crime committed as a 15-year-old juvenile.
- Charles "Andy" Williams
References
External links
- California Correctional Institution Official website
- California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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