COUNTYWIDE : $1 Million Paid to Crime Victims in ’91

Convicted criminals in Ventura County paid their victims more than $1 million in restitution during 1991, according to a report released by the Ventura County Correction Services Agency.

The annual report was released this week as part of the agency’s ongoing effort to recognize the plight of crime victims, Acting Director Frank C. Woodson said Monday.

The victims’ restitution fund only collected about $20,000 in 1978.

“We were not very conscious of the plight of the victim at the time,” he said.

The county now runs programs that force juveniles and adults to try to rectify the pain they caused their victims, Woodson said.

“We tell them that they have created a victim through their actions, and we make them see that there is an obligation to make these victims whole again,” Woodson said.

The payers of restitution last year were almost evenly divided between criminals either on probation or in juvenile restitution centers, who paid just over $500,000 last year, and people convicted of driving intoxicated, who paid about $560,000, the report said.

The restitution amounts are determined by the Correction Services Agency and are usually paid to the victims’ fund in monthly installments, Woodson said.

A second part of the report focused on work programs, which Woodson said enable criminals to repay Ventura County taxpayers who fund their incarceration and treatment.

About 27,000 convicted criminals worked more than 306,000 hours for the county last year, the report said.