State to close 2 juvenile prisons
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The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will close two of the state’s eight juvenile prisons by July.
The department said Friday that the Dewitt Nelson Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton and El Paso de Robles Youth Correctional Facility in Paso Robles would close. Together they house about 400 inmates and employ about 800 workers.
A declining juvenile prison population and a new state law that aims to keep less serious offenders in their communities prompted the closures.
By June, the department forecasts the state will have fewer than 2,000 wards, down from around 2,500 last July and nearly 10,000 in 1995.
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