An Immediate Need

In 2007, the county released more than 6,000 inmates onto the streets, many convicted of assaults, burglaries, driving under the influence, drug offenses and other serious crimes. Inmates often are released before serving their full sentences and some serve just a few days of a one-year sentence.

According to the Riverside County Corrections Master Plan, 1,724 new jail beds are needed immediately in our fast-growing county to stop early releases and keep criminals behind bars. Hundreds of more beds will be needed annually as the county grows.

Up to 2,000 jail beds could be built in the first phase of the new detention center and the site may accommodate 7,200 beds when the project is built out over decades.

Suspects arrested by local law enforcement agencies for misdemeanor assault, battery, driving under the influence, drug possession and theft routinely receive citations and are not booked into county jail because space is not available.

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Keeping People Safe

Our priority is to protect our residents and communities. By designing a state-of-the-art facility with cutting-edge security systems, inside and outside the detention center, we are ensuring that our residents stay safe and inmates stay behind bars where they belong.

Inmates will not be booked into the detention center and will be transported to other jails for release. Those two policies will reduce the project’s effects on the surrounding community and maintain public safety.

The vast majority of inmate activities will occur indoors and the activities will not be visible to residents. In turn, inmates will have no view of neighborhoods from inside the facility. Technology has reduced the need for barbed wire fences and the project will not include guard towers.

A study for the nonpartisan Senate Office of Research in California found that communities near correctional facilities tend to have lower crime rates than those without them.

State-of-the-art security will ensure inmates stay locked up and nearby neighborhoods are safe. The priority is to protect our residents and communities.

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What Are The Benefits Of The Project?

The project will be an economic engine throughout the county, developing vital infrastructure and fire-safety improvements for the nearby community while creating hundreds of public-safety and construction jobs and stimulating business opportunities for vendors and suppliers.

An estimated 300 to 400 construction-related jobs over the next four to six years will be created for the initial phase of construction and the project’s future expansion.

At least 415 people will be employed because of the project when the first phase of the detention center opens and nearly 1,500 will be employed when the project is completed.

The project will include a new million-gallon reservoir and several thousand feet of new water lines. While those improvements are intended specifically to serve the detention center, they offer an improved water-delivery resource for the community, increasing fire-suppression flow to hydrants and providing an emergency water supply in the event of an earthquake or other natural disaster.

The project will bring natural gas to the area to serve the detention center. County officials have approached the Southern California Gas Co. about providing residents in the Whitewater area an opportunity to hook up to the system, should they choose to do so. Those discussions about hookups will continue.

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