Inmate Job Program Shut Down After Arrest : Camarillo: Youth Authority cuts Headline U.S.A. from its work project. A company supervisor is held on drug charges.

One of two private job programs inside the California Youth Authority’s Camarillo facility has been shut down following the arrest of a company supervisor on drug charges.

The contract between the Youth Authority and Headline U.S.A. was terminated Aug. 11, the same day Teresa Merling, 30, of Oxnard, was arrested on suspicion of smuggling amphetamine and marijuana into the secured facility.

Officials said they do not know whether Merling brought the drugs into the facility for her own use or to give to inmates. No inmates have been disciplined in connection with her arrest.

Headline had employed 17 inmates at the Youth Authority’s Ventura School as part of Free Venture, a decade-old partnership with private businesses. The company paid the inmates minimum wage to make cotton T-shirts during eight-hour shifts, said Cynthia Brown, a spokeswoman for Ventura School.

Before Headline’s contract was canceled, Ventura School ran the largest Free Venture work program of any CYA facility, according to Frederick Mills, administrator for the state work program.

Trans World Airlines still employs about 70 inmates at Ventura School. They are trained to make reservations and handle overflow calls from TWA’s reservations center in Los Angeles.

As a result of Merling’s arrest, Youth Authority officials are now reviewing ways to tighten security in the Free Venture program. One idea being considered is to subject employees of private companies to random drug testing.

“We’re going to have to be a little more cautious in our screening process and testing process,” Mills said. “We learn from our mistakes.”

James McDuffy, chief of security at Ventura School, said Merling was searched after she reported for work Aug. 11. Inside a cloth bag she carried, CYA guards found about one gram of amphetamine and a small amount of substance believed to be marijuana, he said.

Ventura School Supt. Vivian Crawford said the investigation that led to Merling’s arrest began about a month ago, when authorities heard allegations that Merling was bringing contraband into the facility.

Because of those allegations, administrators launched an internal investigation and assigned a full-time security guard to the workroom that Merling was supervising.

After her arrest, all of the youths working for Merling were also searched, but no other drugs were found, McDuffy said.

Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary Barrett said Merling was arraigned Aug. 18 on a felony charge of bringing a narcotic into a Youth Authority facility. She pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to appear Sept. 8 at a preliminary hearing in Ventura County Municipal Court.

After her arrest, Merling was released from Ventura County Jail on a promise to appear in court later. She could not be reached for comment.

As a shift supervisor, Merling oversaw the production of the T-shirts in a 4,000-square-foot room. Inmates were trained to use industrial sewing machines, inspect the finished T-shirts for flaws, and count and package them.

Merling was hired in April after being fingerprinted and undergoing a background check intended to screen out felons and people with outstanding warrants.

Headline opened its operation at the Ventura School last December, employing about 34 youths on two shifts. But several months later, the company scaled back to one shift employing about 17 inmates.

Crawford said the business was having “operational problems” but she would not elaborate.

The president of Headline, Farida Haider, could not be reached for comment.

In the decade since the Free Venture program began, Headline is the first operation to be shut down because of allegations of wrongdoing by a company employee, Mills said.

All companies involved in the Free Venture partnership must sign a contract acknowledging that their operation may be immediately shut down for security violations ranging from drugs and alcohol to lethal weapons being brought into the facilities.

Crawford said the policy is justified by the need for tight security at Youth Authority facilities.

“This is seen as a major issue,” Crawford said. “It leads to all kinds of problems if those kinds of things take place and are allowed to continue.”

Crawford said a committee has been formed among Ventura School staff to review what happened and make recommendations on ways to improve security and training for Free Venture supervisors.

“Sometimes in spite of all you do, you get people who will use poor judgment,” she said. “We just want to review every aspect of it, to see if there are some changes we can make to ensure the success of the program.”

At the same time, Ventura School officials are hoping to fill the void left by Headline’s sudden departure. Besides providing inmates with job skills, Free Venture teaches youths self-sufficiency and fiscal responsibility and requires them to pay society for their crimes.

Fifteen percent of an inmate’s wages goes to a fund for crime victims and 20% goes to the state to pay for room and board. Another 40% is put into an interest-bearing account to be available to inmates upon release.

Several companies have already expressed interest in moving into Headline’s quarters, one of which would use inmates to manufacture awnings and parts for recreational vehicles, Mills said.

Brown, the Ventura School spokeswoman, was even more optimistic that a new company would come in.

“We’re already negotiating,” she said. “We’ve had some interest before, but we didn’t have the space.”