For three and a half decades, incarceration has been the lifeblood of Blythe, California. Two state prisons house over a quarter of the city’s population. Chuckawalla Valley State Prison alone employs over 800 people in this small town.
By March 2025, Chuckawalla is set to close, as a reimagined criminal justice system continues to reduce the state’s inmate population. Now, Blythe is facing an existential crisis.
“We know it’s going to be a ripple effect across all sectors,” Interim City Manager Mallory Crecelius told CalMatters. “But we don’t really have a grasp of just how much it’s going to impact.”
Times were already tough for Blythe. A 2022 report conducted by the Riverside County Grand Jury concluded the city was “dying” and that local officials were having a hard time accepting it. Those same officials slammed the report, with one city council member saying he “thought it was bullshit.”
But officials aren’t at all Pollyannish when it comes to the prison closure. They’re terrified, and they’ve enlisted the help of a PR firm to help convince state lawmakers to “save Chuck.”
Instead, the state plans to offer Blythe the same remedy it gave Susanville, another prison town with a facility on the chopping block. Funds will be given to Riverside County’s workforce development board to support small businesses and retrain residents for other jobs.
It may not be enough. Many residents are already packing their bags and looking to establish life anew.
They won’t be alone in their pain. With the state facing a massive budget shortfall, Democratic lawmakers are pushing the governor to close even more prisons by 2027.