California State Prison, Centinela

California State Prison, Centinela (CEN) is a male-only state prison located in Imperial County, California, approximately 20 miles (32 km) from Imperial and El Centro.^[3] The facility is sometimes referenced Centinela State Prison.^[4]

California State Prison, Centinela (CEN)

Aerial View
Location	Imperial County, California
Coordinates	32.823°N 115.789°W / 32.823; -115.789
Status	Operational
Security class	Minimum-Maximum
Capacity	2,308
Population	2,773 (120.1% capacity) (as of January 31, 2023[1])
Opened	October 1993
Managed by	California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Warden	Raymond Madden[2]

Facilities

CEN is situated on 2,000 acres (810 ha).^[4] Of its housing units, 1 Level IV GP, 2 Level III GP, 1 Level III SNY yards ("5 two tier buildings on each yard, 100 Double occupancy cells per building, razor wire cinder block/ chain link fenced perimeters and armed coverage") all surrounded by an additional electrified fence protected by two razor wire atop chain link fences and 1 Level I yard (2 buildings, open dormitory, maximum capacity of 200 inmates each, with secure chain link fence perimeter).

The facility also includes a "CTC" ("Correctional Treatment Center", treating medical, dental, and mental health issues with an integrated hospital type area/ department)."ADSEG" (administrative segregation) has a maximum occupancy of 175, and a Firehouse (Centinela Fire Department, CEP is the three letter identifier) that houses 8 Level I inmates actively trained as structural/ wildland firefighters. Centinela Fire Department is part of the institutions rehabilitation program. It provides rigorous and accelerated training meeting state fire certification, equivalent to a volunteer structural/ wildland firefighter. A library facility was established in 2016.^[4][5]

Population and staffing

As of Fiscal Year 2007/2008, CEN had a total of 1,266 staff and an annual institutional operating budget of $161 million.^[4] As of December 2008, it had a design capacity of 2,383 but a total institution population of 5,097, for an occupancy rate of 213% percent.^[6]

As of April 30, 2020, CEN was incarcerating people at 142.3% of its design capacity, with 3,284 occupants.^[7]

History

CEN was named after Cerro Centinela, the Spanish name for Mount Signal which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border. The prison opened in October 1993,^[4] approximately 22 months after Calipatria State Prison located approximately 40 miles (64 km) north.^[4]

A 1994 statute "require[d] the U.S. attorney general either to agree to compensate a state for incarcerating an illegal immigrant or to take the undocumented criminal into federal custody."^[8] In January 1996, the administration of Governor Pete Wilson "tested the law" by asking Immigration and Naturalization Service agents "to take custody of a 25-year-old illegal immigrant serving time in Centinela State Prison for drug offenses"; however, the agents refused.^[8] Therefore, in March 1996 Wilson sued the federal government to enforce the 1994 law.^[8]

As of 1997, CEN was the "most overcrowded prison in the state" as it ran at "259 percent of designed capacity."^[9] By 2007, however, Avenal State Prison was the California state prison system's "most overcrowded facility."^[10]

In August 2006, a quadriplegic inmate died after the air conditioning failed in a van carrying him and another inmate from California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran to CEN.^[11] According to a reporter's summary of statements by "the federal official now in control of medical care in the state's prison system," the death was "proof of a broken system"; according to the reporter's summary of statements by representatives of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the death was "a terrible event caused by happenstance."^[11]

Notable prisoners

• Cimarron Bell (born 1974) - Serial killer. Currently at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
• Blake Leibel - Perpetrator of the 2018 murder of Iana Kasian^[12]
• Loi Khac Nguyen (born c. 1974) - One of several perpetrators of the 1991 Sacramento hostage crisis.^[13] Currently at California State Prison, Solano.
• John Leonard Orr (born 1949) - Serial arsonist and mass murderer^[14]
• Sanyika Shakur (1963-2021) - Gang member; transferred elsewhere and released on parole^[15]
• Genaro Villanueva (born c. 1969) - Convicted of murdering actor David Huffman^[16]
• Damian M. Williams (born 1973) - One of several attackers of Reginald Denny in 1992; was released but reincarcerated for murder in 2000^[17][18]
• Earlonne Woods - Podcaster and author convicted of attempted second-degree robbery; later transferred to San Quentin State Prison and released^[19]