Records Show State Mental Hospitals Are Safe Facilities

By recommending that Camarillo State Hospital be shut down as inefficient and too expensive, Gov. Pete Wilson has forced Ventura County to consider converting the facility into a virtual prison for mentally ill criminals--or lose the $80 million its workers earn each year.

But several politicians from Camarillo and Thousand Oaks say the last thing they want is to welcome hundreds of psychotic crooks to Ventura County. They are afraid that rapists and killers might escape into their backyards.

“If my choice is bringing in a state hospital full of sex offenders and car thieves versus nothing, then I guess I’ll take nothing,” Camarillo Councilwoman Charlotte Craven said.

Such concerns beg the question: How safe are the state mental hospitals on which a revamped Camarillo facility would be modeled?

The answer is that such hospitals are very safe and make good neighbors, according to the state Department of Mental Health and officials in the small communities where two such hospitals now exist.

Only seven patients have escaped from Atascadero and Patton state hospitals over the past 10 years, state records show. Of those, none have committed any crimes after fleeing into the neighborhoods around those facilities in San Luis Obispo and San Bernardino counties.

And local officials in each area say the high-security institutions are a welcome asset to their community. They do not fret about breakouts or the prospect of sharing the neighborhood with some of the most violent patients in California.

“Worrying about escapes has not been a concern,” said Atascadero Mayor George P. Highland, who has lived in the shadow of Atascadero State Hospital for more than 30 years.

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“No local homes have been broken into or people assaulted,” he said. “The people that have escaped from here, their first thought is to get out of town. They head toward the highway or the railroad tracks.”

San Bernardino County Supervisor Barbara Cram Riordan agrees. As long as the state hospital in her district is well-run and participates in the community, it is welcome.

“That’s a natural reaction,” she said of the fear expressed in Ventura County. “But if they have good security and an able administration, then it is not a problem.

“If it’s properly operated,” she said, “it is a benefit to the community.”

Camarillo State Hospital now serves 866 patients, most of whom are developmentally disabled, also know as mentally retarded. But nearly 400 are mentally ill, including 20 criminals. And they would remain at the sprawling facility if it were converted to a high-security hospital with tall fences and extra guards.

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In general, the patients at Atascadero and Patton are not like those now served at Camarillo.

About 17% of patients at Atascadero and Patton are killers, 13% are sexual offenders and 8% are robbers, mental health officials said. Another 36% have committed physical assaults. About 25% are accused of burglary, theft, arson or other crimes.

Despite the low number of escapes historically, the prospect of bringing those types of patients to Ventura County is unacceptable to Thousand Oaks Mayor Andy Fox, whose city is only about three miles up Potrero Road from the threatened hospital, closer than Camarillo.

“From an economic standpoint, [the hospital] clearly benefits Thousand Oaks because those [workers] are the people who can afford to buy homes,” Fox said. “But I have some real concerns about a facility that’s going to bring in the criminally insane and sexual predators.”

Labor representatives are among those who call that view short-sighted. They point to the well-paying jobs the facility offers and the millions of dollars that workers spend locally.

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Some elected leaders “are not looking at the impact to the community in terms of 1,500 layoffs,” said Maureen Lynch, the California State Employees Assn. representative.

“They’re looking at fear of patients who may get out, but that’s not how it’s been for 60 years.”

Founded in 1936, Camarillo State Hospital cared for more than 7,000 patients at its peak four decades ago.

In recent years, the number of residents has dwindled to fewer than 500 developmentally disabled people and about 375 psychiatric patients.

Developmental services plans to move its patients to community-based homes or other facilities. That would leave too few mentally ill patients to warrant keeping the hospital open.

State Mental Health Director Stephen Mayberg said the Camarillo facility very likely could stay open if it accepts criminals. They are mostly people who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity or were unable to assist in their own defense in court.

Statewide, the number of such court-ordered patients is expected to increase 50% over the next five years, and Camarillo could accommodate much of that growth, he said.

“We’re kind of in a Catch-22,” Camarillo City Manager Bill Little said. “If we oppose any change, we’re liable to lose the whole thing.”