CAMARILLO : Flynn Deplores Using Hospital for Convicts

Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn said Tuesday that county officials must do everything they can to prevent Camarillo State Hospital from being turned into a high-security treatment facility for sexually violent prisoners.

The number of patients admitted to the hospital for psychiatric treatment has been declining for at least five years, and the state Department of Mental Health is considering closing the facility.

The department, however, is looking at the possibility of transforming the hospital into a secured facility for prisoners. A law that takes effect in January requires that felons deemed sexual “predators” be considered for involuntary psychiatric treatment.

But Flynn said the hospital would lose its ability to serve people who are not offenders if such patients are transferred to Camarillo.

“We need to try to find a way for the hospital to be a facility that serves the people of the state of California in a way that does not bring in sexually violent predators,” Flynn said. “Otherwise, we’re going to end up with a facility we really don’t want to have in Ventura County.”

Flynn suggested that the board address the issue in January. Once a formal position has been taken, he said, it would be forwarded to state legislators and the state Department of Mental Health.