Southern California leads in nation's domestic migration

California's population boomed in the two decades after World War II due to a high birthrate and massive migration from other states.

Population growth cooled off in the 1970s, then surged again in the 1980s with a wave of immigration from other nations, followed by a second baby boom among new immigrants.
More recently, the birthrate has been falling, foreign immigration has slowed to a trickle and the state loses more people to other states than it gains.

However, as a new Census Bureau report illustrates, the state - particularly Southern California - has been seeing a lot of movement, some to and from other states but also much within the state.

Between 2007 and 2011, as a severe recession hit California, Southern California counties were the nation's most active in terms of human movement.

The nearly 42,000 people who moved from Los Angeles County to adjacent San Bernardino County during the period was the largest county-to-county migration in the country. It was followed by the nearly 41,000 who moved from Los Angeles to Orange County and, interestingly, the more than 35,000 who moved to Los Angeles from Asia, the nearly 31,000 who moved from Orange to Los Angeles, and the more than 27,000 who moved from Los Angeles to Riverside County.

So the nation's five top relocations all involved Los Angeles County. Other Southern California population shifts are to be found in the nation's top 25, such as the nearly 20,000 who moved from Riverside to San Bernardino.

The report reveals that Los Angeles and San Diego counties were two of just five counties in the nation that lost population to at least 1,000 other counties. And it indicates that Southern California's shifts of population within the region were high at all income and education levels.

While Los Angeles was a net loser in the migration of residents to other nearby counties and other states, it was a net gainer in foreign immigration, particularly from Asia. It also attracted a high percentage of domestic and foreign migrants with advanced degrees, but was among the leaders in losing highly educated residents to other locales.


PHOTO: Rush-hour commuters line up on the 110 freeway, Dec. 14, 2000, in Los Angeles. Associated Press/Damian Dovarganes

via: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/02/southern-california-leads-in-nations-domestic-migration.html

State signs deal to park prisoners in Adelanto

California has signed a contract with an international prison company to lease space for 1,400 inmates — 700 of whom will be housed in the company’s Adelanto lockup.

Florida-based The Geo Group announced Monday that it had signed deals with the state for housing prisoners in two lower-security prisons it owns in California, one in the High Desert city of Adelanto and one in the Kern County community of McFarland.

This is the second in-state contract with a private prison operator, said state Department of Corrections spokesman Jeffrey Callison. Separately, the state has contracts for 8,500 prisoners kept in privately owned prisons in other states.

Monday’s contracts come before Gov. Jerry Brown learns whether federal judges will grant his request for a three-year delay in the court’s orders to cap the state’s prison population. That decision is expected before Friday.

“We are thankful for the confidence placed in our company by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation,” said George C. Zoley, chairman and CEO of GEO, in a statement. “The reactivation of our Central Valley and Desert View Modified Community Correctional facilities will play an important role in helping meet the need for correctional bed space in the State of California.”

It was just last year when the state reportedly said it would end a contract with Geo to house parole violators in McFarland, but Brown later extended the contract through fiscal 2016.

The state had another contract in 2011 for space at the Adelanto facility, but it too was terminated, only to be brought back now.

Callison said that the CDC ended its contract in Adelanto with The Geo Group in 2011 because the contract expired and “at that time determined that we didn’t need the space. Now we have decided that we do. That is one of the advantages of leased facilities, you can expand or contract according to need.”

With the new deals, Geo said the contracts total $30.7 million annually for five years.

The Adelanto facility will begin to accept inmates by the end of the year.

And that’s a good thing for local law enforcement leaders in Southern California, who say they’ve been feeling the burden of the state’s realignment program.

Prison realignment, implemented on Oct. 1, 2011, aims to reduce the state’s prison population after a federal three-judge panel found the overcrowded conditions in prisons kept inmates from receiving adequate health care.

Under Assembly Bill 109, lower-level offenders, those convicted of non-serious, non-violent, non-sexual offenses, are monitored and housed by county institutions.

Police chiefs are upset that some inmates released in the name of overcrowding in the county are committing the same kinds of crimes for which they were first sentenced.

“Anything we can do to free up pressure on the county jail and allow them to stop this revolving door is to our advantage,” San Bernardino Police Chief Robert Handy said.

But not all agree that private prisons are a solution to the state’s inmate housing issues.

State Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, has been outspoken on the issue of realignment.

“I don’t believe simply expanding capacity will provide a durable solution to our prison overcrowding crisis,” Lieu said Monday. “I hope the federal court will extend the prison reduction cap by two or three years. If they do that, then I hope we don’t need to complete the private prison contract.”

Lieu said California has one of the highest recidivism rates in the nation — between 60 and 70 percent.

“For every 100 prisoners we release, 60 or 70 commit more crimes and end up back in prison. Simply expanding capacity doesn’t address that problem.”

For the city of Adelanto, which has been hard-hit by the recession, the 140 jobs that will be created at the Desert View Modified Community Correctional Facility, will be well-received, officials said.

“Any time we can put more people back to work, that’s a move forward,” said Mayor Cari Thomas.

But Victoria Mena, coordinator of a program that coordinates visits with immigrant detainees at Adelanto, said her first reaction to the news was concern.

“Adelanto has three of the largest detention centers in the country — a federal prison, the county jail and the Adelanto Immigration Center, but there are no (Adelanto) high schools, and the elementary schools are failing. It says a lot about the community and says a lot about where their priorities are,” she said. “There are no after-school clubs and no community centers. Instead it’s the hub of mass incarceration.”

Mena said she’s also concerned about the isolation of the city.

“What happens when people are released?” she asked.

The contract signing completes a prison complex owned by Geo in Adelanto. Two other nearby buildings are leased to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

San Bernardino County sheriff’s office spokeswoman Jodi Miller said the new prison contracts will have no effect on department operations.

The county is working on an application to receive $80 million in state assistance for expansion of the Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center in Devore.