California State Prison, Los Angeles County (LAC) is a male-only state prison located in the city of Lancaster, in Los Angeles County, California. The only state prison located in the county, it is also referenced as Los Angeles County State Prison, CSP-Los Angeles County, and CSP-LAC. Only occasionally is the prison referred to as Lancaster State Prison, which was particularly avoided in 1992 partly to ease the stigma for Lancaster.

Facilities

As of Fiscal Year 2006/2007, LAC had a total of 1,519 staff and an annual operating budget of $100 million. As of September 2007, it had a design capacity of 2,300 but a total institution population of 4,976, for an occupancy rate of 216.3 percent. As of April 30, 2020, LAC was incarcerating people at 137.3% of its design capacity, with 3,158 occupants. LAC's 262 acre include the following facilities:

History

Before the prison opened in 1993, Los Angeles County hosted no prisons but accounted for forty percent of California's state-prison inmates. "Most of Lancaster's civic leaders and residents" opposed the building of the prison, and four inmates escaped from LAC in its first year of operation. Nevertheless, by 2000 city residents' opinions of the prison had improved so much that a proposal to increase the proportion of maximum-security inmates received little criticism. A 2006–2007 conversion "of roughly half of" LAC's facilities decreased the number of maximum-security inmates and increased the number of reception center inmates. Since reception center inmates are at the prison for shorter times than maximum-security inmates, the conversion may "reduce the number of families that will relocate to the region to be near a family member who is in the prison" and "reduce the number of prisoners who will want to relocate to the area after serving their sentences or after being released on parole". In March 2021, Canadian singer Justin Bieber visited the prison with his wife Hailey and pastor Judah Smith at the invitation of Scott Budnick. Justin Bieber spoke to inmates about their faith and listened to their stories. In a statement on April 1, 2021, Bieber recounted his visit, saying "It was such an honor listening to their stories and seeing how strong their faith is."

Notable inmates

Current

Former