Escapes Prompt CYA to Consider More Security

In light of an escape by two inmates last week, the California Youth Authority may expand a new security system of video cameras and sound sensors, a spokeswoman said Monday.

Some sensors already have been installed as part of a new $400,000 security system that will also include video cameras, spokeswoman Allison Zajac said.

Although the new network did not call for sensors or cameras in the fenced maintenance area where the two inmates were working at 12:10 p.m. Friday, Zajac said officials may consider spending the extra money to tighten security at Ventura School.

“I’m sure that will be re-evaluated and that we’ll do that,” she said.

Law enforcement officials are still searching for Clarence Lee, 21, who had been convicted in Los Angeles of armed robbery, and Don Jones, 19, who had been convicted in San Diego County of robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.

The two fled from the fenced area behind the work camp by jumping the fence and fleeing in a brown Toyota Celica from the 1960s, officials said.

Within the past nine months, 10 of the about 770 inmates at the CYA facility in Camarillo have escaped, six from areas thought to be secure, Zajac said.

“We expect to have no more than five in one year, so that makes us high for ourselves,” Zajac said.

Four of the escapees were felons--including two murderers--who cut a hole through the facility’s chain-link fence in May. They are still at large, a CYA spokesman said.

Four of the 10 escapees were outside the facility when they slipped away, three on work crews and one shopping for parole clothes at an Oxnard store.

Only three of the 10 have been caught.

Zajac said that most of the escapes would not have occurred if the security system had been in place, and that similar incidents shouldn’t happen once it’s fully installed. Officials earlier had said installation was to be completed this month.

Camarillo City Council members recently toured the CYA facility to inspect the new security measures, but news of the CYA’s escape rate “doesn’t give us any assurance,” Councilman Michael Morgan said.

Given that most of the escapees had committed violent crimes, Morgan said he would conduct further research into the effectiveness of the CYA security measures and of Camarillo State Hospital.

A complaint to the state may be in order about the way the CYA school is being run, he said, adding that he would probably bring up the matter at this Wednesday’s council meeting.

Mayor Stanley J. Daily agreed that security could be further improved at the CYA facility.

“Maybe they need to go back to the drawing board,” he said.

Officials from two other CYA facilities cited far better records than the Camarillo facility.

El Paso de Robles in Paso Robles, with security comparable to Camarillo’s, has had no escapes in more than two years, according to a worker who declined to be identified.

“We had two attempts, but they never made it through the fence,” he said, adding that the fence is equipped with a motion detector and alarm.

One youth escaped Saturday from the Fred C. Nelles School for Boys in Whittier, the first such incident in a year, said a worker who asked not to be identified.

“He was a trustee ward, a pre-parolee, who had access to the front gate and to cleanup areas,” he said. “Last Saturday, he just walked away.”

Zajac pointed out that the inmates are doing more public service, which takes them outside the secure areas. “Whenever you do things like that, there’s some risk involved,” she said.

In 1990, the inmates, who range in age from 14 to 25, performed about 40,000 hours of public service, such as working on fire prevention projects, she said.