Camarillo Council OKs Accepting Mentally Ill Criminals at State Hospital

A divided City Council has voted to support bringing mentally ill criminals to Camarillo State Hospital in hopes of keeping the beleaguered institution open.

Council members voted 3 to 2 in favor of a motion by Mayor David M. Smith that all but abandons their original position of seeking a state university at the sprawling hospital site.

The resolution accepts the university scenario only if there is no other way to keep the property operating.

“This has been a role of leadership that I did not seek and do not relish,” the mayor said after more than two hours of debate that ended near midnight Wednesday. “The changes are serious.”

But “I do not think that five miles away, Camarillo residents will live in fear for their lives because the population will change,” Smith said.

Council members Charlotte Craven and Mike Morgan refused to support Smith’s position. Residents already live near prisoners locked up at the nearby California Youth Authority, Craven said.

“Many Camarillo residents do not want another prison here,” said Craven, who said converting Camarillo State to a locked facility would lead to more and more violent offenders being moved in.

“No matter what [the hospital] becomes in the short term, it probably will become an all-forensic facility and maybe an all [sexually violent predator] facility,” she said.

After Gov. Pete Wilson proposed closing Camarillo State in January, local officials and hospital workers began lobbying on its behalf. The hospital complex employs 1,500 workers and supports an $80-million annual payroll.

The 60-year-old facility could stay open if mentally ill criminals are brought in and security is beefed up, state health officials have said. But they will not pursue that option without the support of local leaders.

Craven and Morgan said they are worried that a new population of prisoners would threaten the safety of Camarillo residents. But workers argue that such patients have been treated at Camarillo State for years.

The position approved by the Camarillo council has two primary components.

It calls for supporting plans to reduce per-patient costs by bringing mentally ill criminals to Camarillo State while continuing to treat patients who were not ordered there by courts.

Second, it concludes that if the facility is to be a hospital that mainly serves criminals, then patients with families in the area should be treated elsewhere on the campus and local officials should participate in a security and screening process.

More than a dozen hospital workers urged council members to support the state’s plan to keep Camarillo State open by bringing in mentally ill criminals. Other speakers opposed Smith’s proposal.

“Your intent is pure and appropriate, but you need to look at the realities,” businessman Wally Boeck said. “They’re trying to feed us the excrement of the system. We don’t need it. It’s not ours.”

Councilman Ken Gose, however, agreed with the mayor.

“Economics are important, but the hospital is more important to people’s health,” he said. “Those people have to be kept somewhere, and they have to be cared for.

“This place was set up to care for them, and I would like to see that continue.”