New Stockton Medical Prison on Track for 2013 Opening

During a media tour on Thursday, officials from the California Department of Corrections and the construction firm Clark/McCarthy said that work on the California Health Care Facility -- a nearly $1 billion prison medical facility in southeast Stockton -- is well underway and on track for completion by summer 2013. The 31-building, 1.2 million square-foot facility is slated to open by the end of 2013 and provide long-term medical and mental health care to up to 1,772 state inmates. The facility -- which will include prisoner housing, medical and mental treatment facilities, a central kitchen and administration building -- will employ 2,400 physicians, nurses and correctional staff and have an annual payroll of $220 million.

• "Medical Prison Takes Shape" (Fujii, Stockton Record, 1/5).