High-Tech Todd Road Jail Opens to Inmates : Corrections: First group arrives to serve time at $53.7-million facility near Santa Paula. Prisoners, staff welcome move to spacious site.

After working to clean and landscape the new Todd Road Jail, one Ventura County inmate decided he wouldn’t mind serving his time in the new $53.7-million facility.

“Geez, I hope they pick me. I want to come here,” the inmate told sheriff’s deputies.

Indeed, the new lockup, nestled in an orange grove west of Santa Paula, also drew sheriff’s personnel, such as Watch Cmdr. Sgt. Dee Bryce, who wanted to work in the state-of-the-art facility.

“I wanted a new challenge, the chance to get a new facility up and running,” Bryce said. “Ninety-nine percent of the staff requested to come out.”

On Wednesday, nearly three years after ground was broken on the project, the new jail officially opened its doors.

The first busload of inmates arrived at 8 a.m. By the end of the day, a total of 85 inmates had checked into Todd Road--barely 10% of the 800 male prisoners the jail will ultimately house.

The new jail was built to reduce overcrowding at the main Ventura County Jail. That facility is designed to accommodate 400 inmates, but averages a daily population of 1,000.

Sheriff’s officials, however, said that Todd Road will not be able to accept any more inmates until more staff is hired and trained, which could take at least a month. Currently, the jail has a staff of 50.

“We certainly have the inmates to fill this place up,” said Senior Deputy Al Schaeffer. “We just don’t have the staff yet. As soon as we do, we’ll start bringing people over.”

Schaeffer said one of the great advantages of the new jail is that it is designed to operate with fewer sheriff’s personnel than other similar-size facilities. 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.

Once fully operational, Todd Road will have a staff of 159, about half of them sheriff’s deputies.

Schaeffer said the new jail will house only inmates who have been convicted and sentenced, freeing up the main jail to handle criminal suspects awaiting trial.

The first group of inmates to arrive at Todd Road were transferred from both the main jail and the sheriff’s honor farm in Ojai. All were individually selected for the move because they were part of work crews, officials said, and not considered violent.

Schaeffer said inmates from the honor farm, a minimum-security facility where prisoners spend much of their time working outside, would probably not like Todd Road because they will be inside most of the time. But inmates from the main jail will probably welcome the move to more spacious quarters, he said.

“They’re going to be coming from a crowded jail, so they’re going to love it,” he said.

After their arrival at Todd Road on Wednesday, inmates were strip-searched, then issued new jail pants, shirts, underclothes, socks and a pair of sneakers. Each also received a blanket, two sheets and a thick foam mattress. The inmates will live in one of the jail’s four housing units.

Schaeffer said the inmates will spend most of their time performing jobs, such as landscaping, laundry and maintenance. Printing equipment also has been brought out from the honor farm, so that inmates can produce newsletters and other department papers.

“The philosophy here is to get everybody doing something,” Schaeffer said.

Although most construction work on the jail has been completed, Schaeffer said that some plumbing, painting and other touch-up work remain. As he walked through the facility Wednesday morning, Schaeffer discovered one other item to be taken care of.

Sniffing the air, Schaeffer said he smelled what he believed was a dead rat in the jail’s plumbing system. The stench hung in the air just outside the area where inmates were locked up Wednesday.

“I better get one of the deputies to fish it out,” Schaeffer said.