Sheriff Announces Abandonment of Location Next to River Ranch Neighborhood for Corrections Campus
- Elisa Ballard
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Community breathes a collective sigh of relief and bursts out in applause at Special Community Meeting in Shasta County Board Chambers
Redding, CA - August 5, 2026
After months of controversy, a lawsuit filed against Shasta County and the City of Redding, as well as mounting pressure from various members and groups in the community, the Shasta County Sheriff announced that the planned Alternative Custody Campus, Men's Reentry Program, and future 1200-bed jail at the 90-acre site next to River Ranch Neighborhood on Eastside Road would be abandoned and an alternative site would be found. Approximately 150 people attended the presentation and Q&A meeting, and they first heard introductory remarks from Supervisor Matt Plummer and Chair Chris Kelstrom, who explained the meeting's decorum.
Then Sheriff Michael Johnson took the microphone and stood in front of the crowd, explaining the critical need for the new campus, noting that the jail is filled to capacity and has no room for low-level offenders. He stressed that he is serving the community as a whole and looking for solutions to a growing problem. He played a short video about the proposed corrections campus that would be built at the site in phases and would include a buffer zone, with the 1200-bed jail at the center. The angst in the crowd was growing when suddenly, the slide came up with the yellow "X" drawn across the parcel and the announcement that the site would be abandoned due to three factors:
1) Opposition by the River Ranch Neighborhood
2) Opposition by a growing number of other groups and members of the community
3) The initial Environmental Impact Report that identified sensitive habitat for various species located on the site would need to be mitigated, which would increase the cost of the project and change the planned location of the buildings on the site.
The crowd relaxed and cheered the news. Shasta Unfiltered has covered this issue extensively and was grateful for this outcome for the community, who had expressed great apprehension when they learned about the scope of the project starting in the fall of last year.
We will continue to report on this when additional information becomes available about any newly proposed site.
