Our View: Kudos to Chowchilla for its stand - Our View - MercedSun-Star.com

We like the way the city of Chowchilla stood up to the state on the issue of the Valley State Prison for Women.

The city said it plans to file a legal challenge against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's plan to convert Valley State into a men's prison -- and to do so without filing a typically required environmental report about the conversion to male from female inmates.

In flowery language, CDCR officials told Chowchilla residents and officials to pound sand because switching genders at the prison "would simply reorganize inmates" and "not affect the physical environment."

That may be true. But we -- and Chowchilla residents -- won't know until and unless that California Environmental Quality Act report is done and reviewed by those most affected -- the people who live in Chowchilla.

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/01/07/2181563/our-view-kudos-to-chowchilla-for.html