Distressed Town To Get Federal Penitentiary
The impoverished farm town of Mendota CA should be getting a federal prison by 2010, but it will be smaller and nearly twice as expensive as originally estimated.
Officials hope the 1,152-bed prison on 960 acres will provide an economic boost for the city as new employees shop and do business with local merchants. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Felicia Ponce says funding to complete the Federal Correctional Institution Mendota comes from a $105 million package in the agency’s budget to furnish and staff it and a prison in West Virginia.
Original plans at the medium-security prison, now with a $250 million price tag, also called for a minimum-security camp. Construction stalled in 2006 as funds were diverted to Hurricane Katrina and the war in Iraq.
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