Ironwood State Prison (ISP) is a
state prison
This is a list of U.S. state prisons (2010) (not including federal prisons or county jails in the United States or prisons in U.S. territories):
* Alabama
* Alaska
* Arizona
* Arkansas
* California
* Colorado
* Connecticut
* Delaware
...
located south of
Interstate 10
Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...
, in a detached section of
Blythe, California
Blythe is a city in eastern Riverside County, California, United States. It is in the Palo Verde Valley of the Lower Colorado River Valley region, an agricultural area and part of the Colorado Desert along the Colorado River, approximatel ...
, that lies west of the main portion of the city. It is located in eastern
Riverside County, California
Riverside County is a County (United States), county located in the southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most ...
, adjacent to
Chuckawalla Valley State Prison.
Facilities and programs
![Ironwood State Prison](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Ironwood_State_Prison.jpg)
ISP consists of four
Level III facilities and an outside Level I facility. Parts of the Level III facilities have been converted to Sensitive Needs Yard (SNY) housing, and one of the Level III housing units has been converted to an Administrative Segregation Unit. Neil McDowell has been the warden or acting warden since 2014.
As of July 31, 2022, ISP was incarcerating people at 112% of its design capacity, with 2,464 occupants.
ISP lists the following programs as available to those incarcerated in the facility:
* Academic: Adult Basic Education I, Adult Basic Education II,
GED
The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a group of four subject tests which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has United States or Canadian high school-level academic skills. It is an alternative to the US high ...
, Independent Study
* Vocational: Auto Body, Auto Mechanics, Building Maintenance, Carpentry, Electronics, Masonry, Office Services Related Tech, Plumbing, Welding
* Rehabilitative: Actors’ Gang,
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual aid fellowship of alcoholics dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually-inclined Twelve Step program. Following its Twelve Traditions, AA is non-professi ...
, Alternatives to Violence,
Anti-Recidivism Coalition, Community Based Art Program, Criminals and Gangs Anonymous, Father2Child Literacy Program, Great Dads, Healing Dialogue and Action, I-4-Sight, Inmate Peer Education Program, Inside Out Writers, Kairos, Life's Too Short (Youth Diversion Program), Lifer's Group,
Narcotics Anonymous
Narcotics Anonymous (NA), founded in 1953, describes itself as a "nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem." Narcotics Anonymous uses a 12-step model developed for people with varied subst ...
, Meditation Buddhist Pathways, Partnership for Re-Entry Program, Prison of Peace, Seven Areas of Life Training, Siddha Yoga Meditation, The Urban Ministries Institute, Veterans Group Ironwood, Victim Offender Education Group
In 2015, ISP became the second launch site for
The Last Mile
The Last Mile may refer to:
* The Last Mile (prison rehabilitation program), a program for inmates in the California corrections system
* ''The Last Mile'' (play), a 1930 play by John Wexley
* ''The Last Mile'' (1932 film), an American adaptatio ...
, a non-profit organization that teaches computer programming to inmates in prisons.
Notable events
In 2014, the
Anti-Recidivism Coalition teamed up with the
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
and others to host a
TEDx
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
conference inside Ironwood with hundreds in attendance, including
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields.
Branson expressed ...
.
ARC produced a short documentary about the event. A short documentary is accessible on YouTube.
Notable people incarcerated at the prison
*
Robert John Bardo
Robert John Bardo (born January 2, 1970) is an American man serving life imprisonment without parole after being convicted in October 1991 for the July 18, 1989, murder of American actress and model Rebecca Schaeffer, whom he had stalked for t ...
- Murdered actress
Rebecca Schaeffer
Rebecca Lucile Schaeffer (November 6, 1967 – July 18, 1989) was an American actress and model. She began her career as a teen model before moving on to acting. In 1986, she landed the role of Patricia "Patti" Russell in the CBS comedy ''My Sis ...
on July 18, 1989.
References
External links
*
Something Extraordinary Is Happening at Ironwood State Prison
Prisons in Riverside County, California
Blythe, California
1994 establishments in California
{{US-prison-stub