They note that both California State Prison, Corcoran, and the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility — a dual prison complex that holds about 8,000 incarcerated men and employs many local residents — stand in the path of potential destruction.“Nobody has ever seen that much snow,” said Jason Mustain, a clerk at the Corcoran hardware store and a former firefighter. He said this is the first year in decades that his farm won’t plant cotton because of flooding. (A thick layer of clay underlies the Tulare Lake region, preventing floodwaters from percolating into aquifers. By April, the lake had reached 188 feet above sea level and was rising approximately 1 foot per week. Roughly $14 million in Corcoran taxpayer dollars was spent to raise it once again.Complicating matters is an additional bit of infrastructure in Corcoran: a massive prison complex run by the state of California.The California Department of Corrections opened the Corcoran prison in 1988.

Source: Los Angeles Times April 26, 2023 19:37 UTC