High Desert State Prison (HDSP) is a high-security state prison that houses level IV inmates located in Leavitt in Lassen County, California. Opened in 1995, it has a capacity of 2,324 persons. As of July 31, 2022, High Desert was incarcerating people at 78.4% of its design capacity, with 1,823 occupants. Also located in Lassen County is the state California Correctional Center, a minimum-security prison. A third prison facility, the Federal Correctional Institution, Herlong, is also located within Lassen County, California. Half the adult population of nearby Susanville works at these prisons. The prisons and their effects on the community, including as a source of much needed jobs, were explored in the documentary Prison Town, USA (2007), aired on PBS.

Investigation

In late 2015 the state Office of the Inspector General completed a six-month investigation into conditions at the prison, after complaints of officer misconduct and prisoner abuse, and issued its report, calling for changes at the facility. Although there are buildings to house certain inmates in protective custody, such as sex offenders, officers put other prisoners near them. The prison has had a rapid turnover in top management for nearly a decade, with seven wardens in eight years. In their report investigators wrote there was a "perception of insularity and indifference to inmates" at High Desert, exacerbated by its remoteness and "a labor organization that opposes oversight to the point of actively discouraging members from coming forward with information that could … adversely affect another officer."

Notable inmates