Residents Cite Fears of Tent Jail for Drug Users : Penal system: A group presents a petition voicing opposition to housing as many as 320 prisoners near homes and schools.

A group of Port Hueneme and Oxnard homeowners said Friday it has gathered more than 700 signatures of residents opposed to the construction of a tent-city jail for recreational drug users at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme.

The 10 residents in the recently formed group, most of whom are Port Hueneme homeowners, said they don’t object to the concept of the proposed encampment for minor drug offenders, but to the idea of having it in their neighborhood, close to houses and three elementary schools.

A tent city “would be great, but not close to us,” said Alice Cervantes, 49, a mother of three who said she has helped canvass her Port Hueneme neighborhood for signatures.

The purpose of the tent city, proposed by Sheriff John V. Gillespie, is to provide additional jail space for as many as 320 minor drug offenders, who would be housed in four large tents on the base.

Earlier this month, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted to ask the U.S. Department of Justice for $7.2 million to help launch the program.

Cervantes said the encampment would be “within walking distance” of Marina West, Carl Dwire and Christa McAuliffe elementary schools.

Mary Conklin, a member of the group, which calls itself the Concerned Citizens Committee, said members gathered 764 signatures in less than three weeks.

One of the group’s main objections is that “wherever these military houses are located, a lot of drug pushers and other people who are in drugs seem to congregate,” Conklin said. “It’s a situation we’re trying to avoid.”

According to a statement released by the group Friday, the majority of people who signed the petition “expressed favoring the incarceration of first-time drug offenders, but . . . not in a heavily populated part of the city.

“We are greatly concerned for our safety and for the safety and value of our property,” the statement read.

Port Hueneme City Manager Richard Velthoen said the city had received the statement Friday, but not a copy of the petition with the signatures. Velthoen said he had been unaware of opposition in Port Hueneme to the tent city, which would be located on the western edge of the 4.5-square-mile city.

A representative from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department is scheduled to make a presentation on the encampment at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. The council has not taken a position on the issue, Velthoen said.

City officials in Oxnard said they had not heard of or seen the petition.

Officials from the Sheriff’s Department and from the battalion center were unavailable for comment Friday.

Paulette J. Griffin, the wife of an enlisted man at the battalion center, said she has talked to many Navy wives who she said are opposed to a tent city because they spend most of the day alone and are afraid of living near a jail facility.

“I don’t think it’s right,” Griffin said. “Why do they need it here when there are women and children alone?”

Griffin said she was asked to help circulate the petition but declined because she said the military frowns upon enlisted personnel and their families participating in political movements.

Conklin said the group plans to circulate the petition for several more days before sending copies to city and county officials.