Detention by Design : Construction on State-of-the-Art Todd Road Jail Nears Completion

Unlike some government projects that suffer from bureaucratic roadblocks and a lack of funds, there is one Ventura County project that, for the most part, has remained on schedule and on budget: the $53.7-million Todd Road Jail.

“We don’t want any delays,” said Chief Deputy Sheriff Donald Lanquist, one of a team of sheriff’s officials overseeing the jail’s construction in Santa Paula. “We’ve got a main jail that is extremely overcrowded. We’ve got to get the new one open.”

Despite early opposition from some area ranchers and Santa Paula officials upset that the jail was being built on prime agricultural land, the project has remained a top priority for the county.

“It would be nice to be building a library or something,” Lanquist said, “but when you see the kind of population growth we’ve had, you have to provide for some of the negative sides of things. And a jail is part of that.”

Built to ease crowding at the main jail in Ventura, the new county lockup, situated on 157 acres of farmland west of Santa Paula, is scheduled to open March 15.

With accommodations for 750 to 800 inmates, the Todd Road Jail is designed to operate more safely and efficiently but with less staffing than similar-size facilities, officials said.

“One of the mandates we gave the architect when we started was that we wanted to have the finest jail in the country,” said Lt. Tom Convery, a member of the sheriff’s oversight team. “That’s what we’ve all worked towards, and I think we’re getting there.”

With a projected annual operating budget of $12 million, the new jail was designed with an eye toward keeping costs at a minimum, Convery said.

To reduce utility bills, skylights and heat-sensitive lighting fixtures were installed throughout the 230,000-square-foot complex. To minimize staffing, the jail’s four living units were built around a central control booth that is also equipped with cameras to monitor nearby recreation areas.

And instead of a law library, which the county is legally required to provide, the new jail will have four computers that inmates can use to access research materials stored on compact discs. This alone will save taxpayers about $180,000, and thousands more on annual maintenance costs, officials said.

But of all the state-of-the art features at the new jail, the most interesting may be the plumbing.

“This is the only jail in the country to have a vacuum-flush toilet system,” Convery said.

In addition to using seven times less water per flush than is customary, Convery said the new plumbing system will also enhance security. During cell searches, deputies will be able to control flushing by simply turning off a vacuum pump.

“Inmates like to flush contraband down toilets,” Convery said. “That’s going to be more difficult to do with this system.”

The jail includes two recreation areas with basketball courts, but there are no plans to add any special features, such as body building equipment, Convery said. Instead, inmates will get most of their exercise by doing maintenance, laundry and landscaping work around the jail.

Printing equipment will also be brought in from the Sheriff’s Honor Farm, so that inmates can print out forms, newsletters and other department papers.

“We’re going to keep them working,” Convery said.

The lockup will have a staff of 159, which translates to about one staff member for every five inmates, one of the lowest staff-to-inmate ratios in the state. In addition, more than half of the staff will be civilian workers.

“The building is designed to be very staff efficient,” Convery said. “A lot of the jobs don’t require an officer. This allows us to put more sworn personnel out on the street where we need them.”

For those men and women officers assigned to the jail, there will be separate dining quarters with an outdoor patio, an exercise room with fitness equipment, and a basketball court.

Because officers will be assigned 12-hour or longer shifts, there will also be overnight accommodations.

“We’re asking the staff to do a tough job,” Convery said, “so we want to provide them with the type of support that will allow them to do the best job they can.”

With the main structure completed, workers are busy installing telephone, surveillance and alarm systems, and in the coming weeks landscape crews will be planting trees, shrubbery and grass around the 20-acre complex.

“We’re about 98% complete,” Convery said.

About $31 million of the jail’s construction costs are being paid for with state bond money, with the county picking up the rest. Officials said that constructing the jail helped the county avoid a federal court order to reduce overcrowding in its main jail, which has an average inmate population of about 1,000. The jail is designed to accommodate about 400.

“We go out and arrest people and judges sentence them, but we’ve got to have a jail facility to receive these folks,” Lanquist said. “We don’t want to have to put these people back out on the street.”

Still, not everyone is thrilled about having a jail in the middle of a greenbelt covered with citrus groves.

“We wish it wasn’t there,” said Santa Paula Councilman John Melton. “It was crammed down our throats.”

Indeed, charging the county with violating its greenbelt agreement, the city of Santa Paula filed a lawsuit in 1991 to block the jail project, but the suit was dismissed.

Melton said he still believes the jail, which is expected to more than triple in size over the next 20 years, will hurt the local agricultural industry and possibly spur other development.

“I’m not going to be at the opening,” he said. “I’m not going to be oohing and ahhing over a torpedo that struck us in our greenbelt.”

Another issue raised by environmentalists opposed to the jail revolved around the building of a six-foot high, 1,000-foot long flood wall along the nearby Todd Barranca. The jail is built on a flood plain, and the wall was needed to prevent the barranca from flooding the jail’s parking lot during heavy rains.

In a lawsuit filed against the county, an environmental group calling itself Citizens to Save the Green Belt argued that the barranca, which supports fish, would be polluted by storm drain runoff from the jail. That case was also dismissed.

Sheriff’s officials said that the jail, which sits in the middle of a 157-acre lemon grove, poses no threat to surrounding farmland. They also say the department has gone out of its way to make sure that the facility is unobtrusive by constructing it in earth tones and by limiting its height.

“We have every intention of being good and valued neighbors to the people in the area,” Convery said. “We want to be an asset to the area, and we feel we will be.”

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Ventura County’s New Todd Road Jail Inmate capacity: 750* Cells: 400 Square-footage: 230,000 Cost: $53.7 million Personnel: 159 Annual: $12 million operating budget Opening date: March 15 * Plans call for the jail to be expanded over the next 20 years to house up to 2,300 inmates.

Source: Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.