page_title: North Kern State Prison
section_title: Facilities
hierarchical_section_title: North Kern State Prison / Facilities
caption_attribution_description: English: North Kern State Prison in Delano, California as seen from the eastbound lane of West Cecil Avenue, view looking north-northwest. This photograph was taken with a Samsung Reclaim SPH-m560 mobile phone camera and edited (crop, rotation, saturation, brightness, contrast, sharpness) using ArcSoft PhotoStudio 5.5
context_page_description: North Kern State Prison is a medium-security prison located in Delano, Kern County, California. Opened in April 1993, this state prison has a design capacity of 2,694 incarcerated people. North Kern serves as a reception center for incoming inmates. Inmates usually serve two to three months at North Kern while staff processes their criminal and health records and assesses their physiological and social needs before assigning them to another prison. While at North Kern, inmates have opportunities to engage in educational programs. With North Kern State Prison and Kern Valley State Prison, which is located one mile away and houses approximately 3,500 inmates, Kern County has one of the largest prison populations of any county in America.
context_section_description: North Kern is an all-male facility with a design capacity of 2,694. As of April 30, 2020, North Kern was incarcerating people at 134.7% of its design capacity, with 3,630 occupants. Of these, a majority are housed in the Reception Center (RC) waiting to be transferred to another state prison and approximately 1,400 inmates live in the mainline part of the prison. Inmates are separated by security and custody levels upon arriving at North Kern.
  There are 5 facilities or "yards" at this prison. Facility A, B, C, D, and Minimum(Formerly E). A yard possesses 800-1000 level 3 mainline inmates. Yards B-D are RC yards. The Minimum yard possesses 100-200 level 1 inmates who work and live in a less secure housing unit located outside the main facility. In the event of a lockdown, minimum yard inmates will come into the main prison to provide support services. During regular operating procedure, mainline A yard inmates provide support services throughout the prison, for example, kitchen, laundry, education, and library.  A and D yard inmates live in cell housing units while yards B, C and Minimum reside in dorm housing units. In addition to holding a job at the prison, mainline inmates are eligible for education and reentry programs.
  Inmates housed in the Reception Center (RC) typically spend two to three months at North Kern before being transferred to another prison. They stay behind the electrical fence and, if approved, may help run support services. North Kern has four cellblocks with each cellblock having its own yard. All cells are doubled bunked. Most RC inmates are custody level four inmates and reside in cells. A few lower custody RC inmates that stay in dorms.
  Overcrowding is a day-to-day reality, hence the double bunked cells. The sewage system was also not built for such a large population, leading to periodic toxic spills.  A grinder and a backup sewage system were installed a few years after the prison opened to crush the excess trash and help the sewage system run more efficiently.
  Three fences surround North Kern i.e. two razor wire fences with an electric fence in the middle. Several towers are stationed around the prison to reinforce the fence line.
caption: NKSP, as seen from W. Cecil Ave., is situated among farm lands and open fields.
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