CAMARILLO : CYA Officials Stick With Security Plan

The California Youth Authority will not install new security cameras or sound sensors in an area of the Camarillo facility where two inmates escaped in January, CYA spokesman John Butler said Tuesday.

But officials will go forward with a plan to install a $400,000 system of cameras and sensors in other areas around the fenced prison for youths. The system, which had been slated to be fully installed by January, will not be fully operational until June because of a contractual holdup at the state level, said Sarah Andrades, a CYA spokeswoman in Sacramento.

The original contractor chosen to supply the cameras was deemed ineligible, so the contract had to be awarded to another one, Andrades said.

The sound sensors are already installed at the Camarillo facility, said Butler, who defended the security measures now being used.

“We feel confident in the perimeter system we have now,” he said. “When we have the cameras it’ll be all the better.”

In addition, he said, the facility that is also known as the Ventura School is reducing its population, which should help to tighten security even more.

Butler said the state ordered Ventura School to cut back its inmate population because of budget problems and the recent opening of a new CYA facility in Stockton.

The population was as high as 900 at one point, but officials want to reduce the number of inmates to 810, he said.

“We’ve been overcrowded all this time,” he said, adding that the campus still holds more inmates than it was designed for. The main facility, which does not include a work camp on the grounds, was built to hold 600 people, but 725 live there now.

Staff members working at the facility Tuesday night did not know whether the two inmates who escaped in January--Clarence Lee, 21, and Don Jones, 19--have been apprehended. Their escapes brought the total to 10 from May to January.