Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center repopulated after flooding threat subsides
SACRAMENTO COUNTY – All inmates are now back at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center after they were evacuated earlier in January due to the flooding threat in the area.
The prison, which sits along Bruceville Road, was emptied after the New Year's storms caused the nearby Cosumnes River to swell. With the impending threat of flooding growing by the hour, authorities made the decision on New Year's Day to evacuate inmates and staff from the facility.
"To ensure both short-term and long-term safety, while weighing the risk of the facility's viability as conditions worsened, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office decided to evacuate all inmates and staff from RCCC before conditions deteriorated to a point where those at the facility could be left in peril," the sheriff's office said in a statement.
All 1,075 inmates were evacuated safely from the facility, the sheriff's office says, along with all staff.
Inmates were taken to other nearby correctional facilities, like the El Dorado County Jail, Yuba County Jail, California State Prison Sacramento, and California State Prison Solano.
A makeshift "Tiger Dam" was also installed around the facility.
On Tuesday, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office announced they had resumed normal operations at the facility. It took three days to repopulate the prison, with a total of 1,015 inmates brought back.
