Status Operational Warden J Price (A) Opened 1953 | Capacity 1,681 Phone +1 209-835-4141 | |
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Population 2,222 (132.2%) (as of 31 December 2012) Managed by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Similar San Joaquin County Jail, Tracy Police Departme, San Joaquin County J, Tracy City Hall, Sheriff's Departme Affair | ||
Deuel Vocational Institution (DVI) is a state prison located in unincorporated San Joaquin County, California, near Tracy.
Facilities
DVI opened in 1953 and named for the late California state senator Charles H. Deuel, who sponsored legislation establishing the institution. The facility has been expanded and reorganized several times, in 1959, 1981 and 1993. Its current head warden is J. Price.
In 1956 the Mexican Mafia was established at Deuel.
Today the primary purpose of DVI is to serve as a reception center for newly committed prisoners to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from northern California county jails. The facility also houses a small number of minimum- and low-security inmates (classified by CDCR as levels I and II) and provides some Prison Industries Authority (PIA) facilities at a dairy and a furniture fabrication plant. As of January 2006, the total count of prisoners at DVI was 3,748, with 3,162 of that number assigned to the reception center.
As a result of DVI's primary function as a reception center, in which a large number of felons of different propensities for violence, disciplinary and security issues pass through before being classified and transferred to other facilities, DVI has a long-standing reputation for being violent and dangerous. The facility used to be referred to as "gladiator school" by inmates and staff, because the DVI was widely known for the fights and homicides that took place within the prison walls.
As recently as June 2010, an inmate murder in the facility has been recorded.
DVI also has a 110-inmate farm and operate a 1200-cow dairy. They grow cattle grain and supply milk to other state prisons and tax-supported public agencies.