‘Super Max’ : Celebration: President Bush helps the Sheriff’s Department dedicate a high-tech jail in Castaic.

The maximum-security county jail in Castaic dubbed “Super Max” by President Bush when he opened it Thursday is a state-of-the-art facility that was designed with the help of the officers who will guard its 2,064 inmates.

A giant security complex consisting of five smaller jails, the $134-million North County Correctional Facility is on 34 acres of the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho, which already houses about 7,500 minimum-, medium- and maximum-security inmates.

The facility will ease crowding at 10 county jails, which, as of Thursday, held close to 23,000 inmates. These jails have a state-rated capacity of 13,464, said Deputy Rafael Estrada, a department spokesman.

Officials with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the facility’s electronic surveillance and control system will allow fewer deputies to keep watch over more inmates.

Nationally, the average inmate-to-staff ratio is 3.4 to 1. At the County Jail, the ratio will be 5.8 inmates to 1, officials said.

A central computer system can lock and unlock all doors in the 681,422-square-foot complex, from individual cells to the main entrance of the administration building. The control center has 28 television monitors hooked up to 128 cameras stationed strategically throughout the complex.

A committee of sheriff’s deputies helped engineers decide where to place the television cameras to avoid blind spots common in other jails, said Deputy Gregory Frum, an Honor Rancho guard and committee member.

Frum, who stood guard at the entrance, where Bush arrived by helicopter, said deputies particularly wanted cameras stationed in all hallways. “It will cut down on inmate fights,” he said.

After Bush delivered brief remarks saluting the jail and the Sheriff’s Department, hundreds of people from the audience of 1,600 toured the facility, which is expected to begin receiving inmates March 8. But as one sheriff’s deputy dryly noted to two women on the tour, “We were supposed to get our first prisoners a year ago.”

Last spring’s opening was delayed when engineers discovered that the complex computer system could not lock doors on command. For a time, toilets would not flush because soil and particles in the Honor Rancho well water clogged the pipes.

The jail was built with $131 million provided by state and county bond measures for jail construction. In December, the Board of Supervisors approved an additional $2.7 million to complete the latest expansion project at the Honor Rancho. Two years ago, the county officials opened a 1,600-bed, medium-security jail.