Bill to House Adult Inmates in Camarillo Is Drawing Fire

Ventura County’s elected leaders were divided Friday over a state proposal to replace female teens incarcerated at a youth correctional facility in Camarillo, possibly with boys or low-risk adult male prisoners.

Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) last week amended her bill, which seeks to move female offenders in the juvenile justice system to less expensive community programs where they can receive education and rehabilitation programs.

The amendment asks corrections administrators to suggest alternatives for how the Camarillo youth facility should be used if the female prisoners are placed elsewhere.

The Camarillo facility, on a 160-acre campus off Wright Road north of the Ventura Freeway, is the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s only lockup for females ages 14 to 25. About 128 females receive drug rehabilitation and fire suppression training.

Fifty-nine teenage male prisoners are housed in nearby barracks.

Camarillo Mayor Mike Morgan said Romero’s amended bill sounds like a new attempt in Sacramento to saddle Ventura County with dangerous criminals despite assurances to the contrary.

Morgan, a federal and county probation officer for 28 years, said state officials once suggested converting Camarillo State Hospital -- now Cal State Channel Islands -- to hold adult prisoners.

“They say ‘low-risk offenders,’ but that’s the same thing they told us before, until we found out what was really going on,” Morgan said, adding that the hospital plan was scrapped after it was determined to be too expensive to install guard towers and other security measures.

But Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) suggests Romero’s proposal may benefit Ventura County.

“It seems to me we would be trading the worst-of-the-worst teen females -- including murderers -- in the system for the best-of-the-best males in the adult system, those without a single infraction on their record” while incarcerated, McClintock said. “At first blush, it seems like a pretty good trade to me.”

Assemblywoman Audra Strickland (R-Moorpark) said she fielded several calls Friday from frightened and angry constituents concerned about Romero’s proposal.

“There just aren’t enough words to say how strongly I oppose using that facility to house adult men,” Strickland said. “This is a suburban community and you should never put male prisoners in a suburban setting.”

Strickland said Romero was out of line by not contacting her or other local officials when proposing changes in the district. Strickland said she will solicit Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s support to ensure any changes at the Camarillo youth facility are not finalized until residents have a chance to fully discuss the issue.

Built in 1962, the Camarillo facility can hold about 600 youths, but operates at less than one-third of capacity.

The annual budget of $31 million -- more than$242,000 per female ward -- Romero said, is a waste of tax dollars that must stop.

“Any taxpayer in the state of California should be outraged at the cost and the failure of the Ventura facility,” Romero said. “There’s no reason we should be spending so much.... That is fat in government, and first we have to stop the bleeding.”

Despite the facility’s campus-like setting, Romero said the Camarillo facility has a poor record of repeat offenders: Seven of 10 released wards return to crime, she said.

“I’ve been pushing to get the girls out for some time.... The Department of Juvenile Justice has failed in its mission to rehabilitate young females in the system,” Romero said, adding that many females in custody are themselves victims of sexual abuse and that current programs are inadequate to address their special needs.

The Senate in May approved an earlier version of Romero’s bill; the amended bill is working its way through the Assembly.