CAMARILLO : Tight Budget Forces CYA Program Cuts

Layoffs at the California Youth Authority in Camarillo will force officials Friday to shut down the juvenile prison’s library and pet-grooming class that teaches job skills to inmates, CYA officials said.

CYA officials ordered the layoffs at the facility, which is also known as the Ventura School, as part of $13 million in budget cuts made systemwide this year, said Sarah Andrade, a CYA spokeswoman.

The layoffs of five permanent part-time employees, to save $128,000 a year, will force closure of the prison’s library and classes in pet-grooming, home economics and sewing, Andrade said.

Although the pet-grooming program paid for inmates’ wages and supplies with a $650 profit left over, the CYA was forced to cut schoolwide costs by laying off the instructor, Andrade said.

Administrators at the prison are discussing alternatives that they hope will allow them to keep the classes and the library open, she said.

The move to close the pet- grooming class brought immediate complaints from customers who pay $9 to $19 to have the inmates spruce up their pets--a rate substantially lower than those charged by some private grooming shops.

“This is one of those bureaucratic bungles,” said Erin Sheffield, who for years has taken Teddy, her temperamental Lhasa apso, to the inmates for weekly baths.

Scott Daley, another customer, said, “It is beneficial for the kids to interact with average Joe Citizen, and they should not lose that.”

Rhonda Todd, the class aide who was told Monday that she would be laid off, said she expected a pay cut, not a pink slip.

Todd said her supervisor assured her that there is enough money to reopen the program in July when the 1992-1993 budget takes effect.

“But I said, ‘You won’t have the program in July because all the customers were going to be gone, and you’ll have to start from scratch.’ ”

Tammy Walters, an inmate who has worked in the grooming class for two years, said she plans to use what she learned to open her own pet salon when she is released.

“The management skills we learned here are irreplaceable,” Walters said. “This has been a bombshell.”