Castaic jail complex in wildfire evacuation zone; officials plan to shelter in place

When a rapidly growing wildfire spread to more than 5,000 acres of northern L.A. County, Sheriff Robert Luna told locals to evacuate immediately.

“If you are in these areas, and you get an evacuation order, you need to leave,” he said in a midafternoon television interview. “You need to leave immediately. Don’t argue, we need to get you out of there. Your life depends on it.”

But for the 4,700 inmates at the facilities in the Castaic jail complex — all of which were in an evacuation zone by midafternoon — that would be impossible.

“They have no choice,” said Vanessa Rosenkild, whose brother is at one of the fire-threatened facilities. “Yes, they have been put there because of their choices, but that doesn’t mean they deserve to die. They are still humans, and they still have family members who love them.”

As soon as the Hughes fire broke out midmorning five miles from the jails, attorneys and inmate advocates urged local leaders to evacuate the inmates housed there. But a shortage of transport buses — roughly three-quarters of which officials previously said were not operational — complicated the already nightmarish logistics of transferring thousands of inmates all at once.

Initially, sheriff’s officials moved roughly 480 inmates from a barracks-style facility to a sturdier concrete structure that was slightly farther from the flames but still at the same complex. Luna said during the televised interview that fire officials had advised keeping the rest of the inmates — and their jailers — where they were, sheltering in place inside the concrete structures.

But by late afternoon, when the flames had spread to more than 8,000 acres, Luna told The Times that he’d started making plans for a large-scale evacuation should one become necessary.

Melissa Camacho, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, urged officials to move people immediately.

“If people die in the fires because LASD did not evacuate,” she told The Times, “it will be the biggest carceral disaster in U.S. history.”

The Hughes fire broke out a little before 11 a.m. Wednesday, roughly five miles north of the Pitchess Detention Center.

“No evacuations have been ordered yet,” the department said at 10:58 a.m. “The facilities are aware and will take appropriate action as necessary.”

The blaze soon ballooned to more than 3,000 acres, and just before noon, the ACLU of Southern California — which represents inmates in two class-action lawsuits against the jails — began reaching out to county officials.

At 11:53 a.m., Camacho emailed county Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s justice deputy, Sandra Croxton, with her concerns.

“I hope that you and Supervisor Barger can put immediate pressure on LASD to start evacuating the four jails immediately,” Camacho wrote. “I would imagine that there are about 1,000 LASD staff up there too, though that’s only a guess. But you’re definitely looking at well over 5,000 people to evacuate. It’s simply too many people to evacuate to wait for an evacuation order or even a warning, especially with only about 20 buses available that are likely spread around the county right now.”

For years, the Sheriff’s Department has struggled with a shortage of inmate transport buses, due to an aging fleet that has become increasingly difficult to repair. By late last year, officials told The Times, only 20 of its 82 buses were operational.

Though the county approved funding for 20 new buses in September 2023, the first did not arrive until December. Officials say the remaining buses are slated to arrive every few weeks until the order is expected to be complete in August.

In the meantime, inmates have regularly missed court appearances due to the lack of buses for transporting them — something that has frustrated lawyers, judges and inmates alike.

“They don’t have enough buses to take people to court,” Camacho said. “They certainly don’t have enough buses to move them all at once for an evacuation.”

By 12:20 p.m. Wednesday, the department said it was not evacuating the Castaic complex “yet,” but that day shift deputies and jailers had been asked to stay late — both to help in the event of an evacuation at the jails, and to assist with evacuations in parts of Santa Clarita affected by the blaze.

By 1 p.m., the fire had spread to more than 5,000 acres. The L.A. County Public Defenders Union issued a statement on social media calling for the facilities to be evacuated.

“We demand that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff’s Department take swift action to protect the lives of the thousands of incarcerated individuals entrusted to their care,” the statement said. “We are deeply alarmed by the imminent risk this disaster poses to the health and safety of our clients. They must not be neglected or abandoned during this critical moment.”

Twenty minutes later, the department said it had redirected several of its still-operational buses to the area and begun moving roughly 400 inmates from the tent-like barracks at Pitchess Detention Center to the nearby North County Correctional Facility.

By 2:30 p.m., both facilities fell within the evacuation zone, which extended to The Old Road to the west and Newhall Ranch Road to the south. The department said it was “evaluating the situation” to determine whether to evacuate further.

Just after 4 p.m., Michelle Parris, director of the Vera Institute of Justice’s California office, joined in the calls for evacuation.

“The county must call on all the state and county resources it can to evacuate as many people as possible immediately, provide PPE to anyone left behind, and concentrate firefighting resources to save thousands of people who cannot evacuate themselves,” she said in a statement. “Right now, nearly 5,000 lives are in danger because of Los Angeles County’s ongoing failure to keep incarcerated people safe and alive.”

By that point, the flames had spread to 8,000 acres. But according to Luna, fire officials said the blaze was to the north of the facility, and the wind was blowing to the west.

“If that shifts, we’re going to have a bunch of buses up here trying to get people out,” he said.

To do that, Luna said, Ventura County is sending buses, and the Sheriff’s Department may also use Metro buses — with extra deputies to provide security.

For now, he said, he has asked firefighters to take extra precautions to protect the jails.

“We asked for a couple of drops and fire retardant between us and the fire, even though it’s not heading toward us,” he said. “I’m not willing to lose one person at that facility.”