Drug Offenders May Be Jailed in Tents

Ventura County plans to step up enforcement of minor drug offenses and may put some of those convicted in an encampment on public land so that County Jail facilities would not be further overcrowded, officials said Tuesday.

The idea is part of a new, drug-enforcement policy being developed by Sheriff John V. Gillespie and Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury.

“We’re going to turn up the heat on recreational users and start hitting the demand side of the equation,” Bradbury said. “We want to go after those people and put them in jail.”

However, if an idea proposed by Gillespie is approved by the Board of Supervisors, the offenders would not be housed in existing jail facilities--which already are desperately overcrowded--but in tents.

Although the sheriff also mentioned in his “State of the Jails” report this week that the county might be able to renovate existing buildings to house the new inmates, Assistant Sheriff Richard Bryce said that one Navy base already is enthusiastic about hosting the encampment because of the free labor it could provide.

Bryce refused to name the base, but the county has two, the Port Hueneme and Point Mugu naval facilities near Oxnard.

Under the plan, Bryce said, two to four tents, each of which would house about 80 prisoners, would be installed at one of the bases. The department would seek federal funds to help pay for the tents, which cost about $60,000 each.

Initially, an encampment would be set up just for men, but if the tents prove practical, another encampment would be erected for women, Bryce said. Two deputies would guard the tents, to be enclosed by a fence, he said.

The inmates would be assigned work duties such as picking up trash, mowing lawns and painting buildings and might be taken to public areas, such as beaches, marinas and parks, to do maintenance, Bryce said.

During free time, they would be required to attend substance-abuse classes or take part in counseling sessions, according to the plan.

The program could be in full swing in 30 days, once the department receives approval from the Board of Supervisors and completes negotiations with the Navy base, Bryce said.

The idea for the encampment is based on the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s use of four 15-foot-high domed tents to house minimum-security prisoners at the James A. Musick facility in Irvine, Bryce said.

“They’ve worked out very well, although they tear apart pretty easily,” Orange County Assistant Sheriff Jerry Krans said of the tents.

Measuring 90 feet by 40 feet, the tents--which are air-conditioned and heated--house about 80 prisoners each. A fifth tent, 50 feet by 80 feet, is used for recreation.

The encampment, which is popular with inmates, was launched in 1985 to handle an overflow of prisoners from Orange County’s jail facilities. Although the tent village was meant to be temporary, there is no indication that it will be discontinued, Krans said.

The tents in Ventura also would be intended as a temporary solution to lack of space for prisoners, Bryce said.

As a permanent solution to the overcrowding, the county is considering building a new jail. And Supt. John K. Flynn has proposed that the county embark on a $19-million, 450-bed expansion of the jail at the county government center in Ventura. In addition, Flynn has proposed that the county build a separate facility for inmates convicted of drug offenses.

The supervisors are expected to decide whether to build the new facility within the next five months. Five rural sites are under consideration.

In 1989, County Jail facilities housed an average of 794 more inmates than they were built to accommodate, according to Gillespie’s report. If nothing is done to alleviate the space problems, the county predicts that there will be 2,800 more prisoners than beds by the year 2010.