Amendment to Bill Calls for Shifting Prison Site From L.A. to Camarillo : Roos Plan Imperils Agreement on Placement of New Facilities

A proposal in the state Legislature to shift a planned state prison from downtown Los Angeles to Camarillo State Hospital threatens to jeopardize a painstakingly negotiated bipartisan deal to build prisons in Los Angeles and Lancaster.

Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), whose district includes Camarillo, charged that the proposal, an amendment to a prison construction bill, was a politically motivated attack on him.

McClintock angrily accused the amendment’s author, Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles), of engaging in “the cynical subversion of critical public policy to petty partisanship.”

At issue is the location of a 1,450-bed maximum-security facility that will be used to process and screen inmates entering the crowded correctional system. Roos’ proposal for the $148-million lockup, which includes converting the present psychiatric hospital to a prison, is certain to provoke heated controversy.

With no fanfare, Roos, the Assembly Speaker pro tem, introduced the amendment Wednesday to a prison construction bond measure, which was then passed by the Ways and Means Committee.

Veto Promised

Republican Gov. George Deukmejian, who had reached agreement with the Democratic-led Legislature on the two Los Angeles County prisons in 1987 after long and bitter debate, promptly vowed to veto the amended bill.

“It is contrary to the five-year-plus effort that we made to secure a prison site in Los Angeles County,” said Kevin Brett, Deukmejian’s press secretary. “It’s contrary to the legislation that the governor signed in 1987. And if the legislation reached the governor’s desk with this amendment in it, the governor would veto the bill.”

The measure would upset a delicate political balance that was achieved in legislation sponsored by Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside), which included one prison in heavily Democratic, urban Los Angeles and another in Republican-dominated, suburban Lancaster.

Camarillo is in overwhelmingly Republican Ventura County. Roos’ amendment would thus put both prisons in Republican areas.

Roos, who reluctantly voted in 1987 for siting a prison in Los Angeles, acted this week because a three-member state panel set up to determine the consequences of building the prison in Los Angeles rejected in April an environmental impact study for the proposed penitentiary, said his chief of staff, Richard Milner.

Too Many Beds

Milner said he had recommended the Camarillo site to Roos within the past 10 days because studies have indicated that the state has too many psychiatric hospital beds and has considered closing the Camarillo facility in the past. Moreover, he said, part of the hospital might be converted to house mentally ill inmates, thereby meeting another pressing need.

The state Department of Corrections, which strongly opposes Roos’ amendment, plans to submit a revised environmental impact study for the Los Angeles prison by September and hopes to break ground for it by mid-1990, spokesman Tip Kindel said.

“There’s no reason to move,” he added.

McClintock, an outspoken conservative who has engaged in vitriolic sparring with the Assembly’s Democratic leadership on gun control and other issues, said Roos was attacking him by proposing to locate the prison in his district. Such facilities generally incite intense opposition from nearby residents, placing elected representatives under great pressure.

In a news release Thursday, McClintock included a transcript of a heated exchange between himself and Roos during an April 4 meeting of the Assembly Public Safety Committee. A McClintock aide subsequently played a tape recording of the dialogue for The Times.

During the committee meeting, McClintock argued for construction of more prisons; Roos responded that the Democrats’ priority was creation of economic and educational opportunities for the downtrodden.

Then, Assemblyman John Burton (D-San Francisco), the committee chairman, interjected: “Mr. Roos, as I understand it, you will support legislation to have a state correctional institution at Thousand Oaks?”

Said Roos: “Absolutely! And watch him scream like a pig!”

‘Fulfilled That Threat’

Now, McClintock said Thursday, Roos has “fulfilled that threat” with his amendment. While the proposed prison is in Camarillo rather than Thousand Oaks, both are within McClintock’s district.

“This action constitutes the very worst political gamesmanship imaginable and deserves the scorn and disgust of every Californian,” McClintock said.

Milner said he did not believe that Roos’ remark in the Public Safety Committee and his choice of Camarillo were linked. Nevertheless, he had some pointed words for McClintock.

“McClintock has been going around saying we need more prisons,” Milner said. “But as soon as you say you have to have a prison in his district, he gets all mad. If he’s for more prisons, he ought to be able to say it’s OK in his district.”

The prison bill, which calls for a measure on the 1990 ballot asking voter approval of bond sales to pay for prison construction, was passed by a Ways and Means subcommittee and the full committee Wednesday on partisan lines. Democrats voted for it; Republicans against it.

It was sent to the full Assembly, which is expected to consider it in several weeks.

Funds Approved

The funds for the prison that was to be built in Los Angeles have already been approved in a previous bond issue.

Under the new legislation, which was sponsored by Assemblyman Willard H. Murray Jr. (D-Paramount), the Camarillo site would replace the original Los Angeles location near Boyle Heights, which Latino activists have intensely opposed, Milner said.

The Lancaster site, the second part of the 1987 compromise, would remain unchanged.

Milner acknowledged that the Democrats’ priority is to keep a lockup out of Los Angeles, rather than to locate one in Camarillo.