VACAVILLE — Located in the city of Vacaville are two prisons designated within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations — California State Prison Solano and California Medical Facility.
CSP Solano is a medium security facility located on 146 acres and housing about 6,000 prisoners. It was originally designed to hold 2,610 inmates. The warden at CSP Solano is Gary Swarthout.
CSP Solano operates with an annual $158 million budget and has more than 1,300 employees.
CSP Solano provides custody, treatment and rehabilitative programs for inmates. Being a programming institution, the prison offers a wide variety of rehabilitative opportunities, including academic programs.
It provides a comprehensive work/training program with academic education, vocational training and industries assignments, which are designed to give prisoners work skills along with an education to successfully reintegrate them into society.
CSP Solano also offers a wide variety of additional help and organizational programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Veterans services, Victim Offender Reconciliation Group and a Prison Outreach Program.
The California Medical Facility was established in 1955 to care for the needs of the California prison population. The Warden at CMF is Vimal Singh.
CMF operates with an annual $308 million budget and has more than 1,800 employees.
CMF was designed to house 3,292 inmates. It currently has a population of about 3,000 inmates. The prison includes a general acute care hospital, a correctional treatment center, licensed elderly care unit, an inpatient and outpatient psychiatric facility — inmates are brought here from all over the state — a hospice for the terminally ill and the Department of Mental Health operates an acute care psychiatric hospital on the grounds.
CMF and CSP Solano both have visitor centers that provide visiting assistance to family members and friends of inmates that includes a sheltered place to wait before and after visits, transportation to and from local transit terminals, child care, clothing appropriate for visits on loan and information about local resources.
When CSP Solano originally opened in 1984, it was administered by the warden at CMF. The two prisons were separated in 1992.
Reach Jess Sullivan at 427-6919 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jsullivandr.
