DELANO — California is opening what may be its last big prison Wednesday to the first dozen of at least 5,000 maximum security inmates, marking the end of a decades-long prison-building binge. For the first time in years, there are no new prisons planned or under construction anywhere in the state.

Kern Valley State Prison is the last of 20 new prisons built in recent decades.

Also known as Delano II, California's 33rd penitentiary was needed to relieve overcrowding, and to house the growing number of violent inmates that older, less secure facilities simply can't handle, corrections officials say.

But critics now question whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is skirting his own promise to close the state's budget gap by curbing prison spending. The new facility cost taxpayers $379 million to build, and will take $110 million annually to operate.

The state Department of Corrections has grown into a $5.7 billion a year behemoth since its inception more than 150 years ago, currently housing 301,181 offenders in various facilities, including 163,939 prison inmates.

Prison-building boomed in the 1970s under Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, and Republican Governor George "Iron Duke" Deukmejian pushed for more penitentiaries and tougher sentencing laws in the 1980s.

The 1994 three-strikes law, which mandates 25-year-to-life sentences for most offenders with two previous serious convictions, packed them full. The state's maximum security population has grown from about 28,230 inmates in 2000 to about 31,730 last year. The system currently operates at 194 percent of capacity.

Signaling his commitment to curb recidivism that has clogged the prison system, Schwarzenegger plans to restore the agency's name to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, starting July 1.

Brown had dropped the word "Rehabilitation" in the late 1970s.

The new Delano facility — a series of tan concrete buildings behind double rows of electrified barbed wire — is tucked away amid fields of cotton and grapes in the San Joaquin Valley about 130 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Its design is supposed to enable prison guards to monitor the most violent inmates at all times.

"There are no blind spots," said Sabrina Johnson, an official from nearby California State Prison-Corcoran. "This is a great design."

Officials also hope Kern Valley will serve as a model for bringing vocational training and educational opportunities to other maximum security prisons.

"Idleness in inmates leads to problems," said George Galaza, Kern Valley's prison manager.

Maximum security inmates "are not the cream of the crop," Galaza added. "They're not Boy Scouts, but they're going to be released back into the community. It's our job to do what we can to change their focus."

Even so, prison reform advocates were hopeful Delano II — set to be fully operational in January 2006 — would never materialize.

"People now are more interested in real public safety, and there's recognition that locking people up and throwing away the key is not the answer," said Rose Braz, of the group Critical Resistance and Californians United for A Responsible Budget, who praised the halt to prison-building as the end of a cruel era.

Schwarzenegger bucked a trend set by his predecessors when he won the state's top job while publicly eschewing donations from the 31,000-member California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the politically powerful prison guards union.

The group had generously given to previous Republican and Democratic governors alike, seeking and winning support for legislation that increased prison spending.

The union is currently protesting many of Schwarzenegger's policy changes, including the move toward more rehabilitation.

Meanwhile, here in Delano, the dusty Central Valley town where Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers union, residents wonder if the prison will indeed create jobs for them, as prison officials contend.

Locals are mostly Hispanic, a quarter of the population is unemployed and half of the 42,801 people don't have high school diplomas.

The town is already home to the 5,028-inmate North Kern State Prison, and City manager Abdel Salem said few residents will qualify for the 1,145 new prison jobs, which require at least a high school degree.

"We're working hard, building new subdivisions and trying to attract more businesses," said Salem. "We hope this will be good, but only time will tell."

Some prison observers expect the opposite — rising housing prices that could push the cost of living beyond what longtime residents can afford. "It'll turn their economy upside down," said Paul Sutton, a criminal justice professor at California State University, San Diego.