Tight Quarters

When the women at county jail in Ojai want to fight, they know what to do. The foes step into a shower, tucked behind the long rows of bunk beds crammed into their jail’s housing unit, and slug it out.

“It’s kind of like that old psychology experiment,” said Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Cmdr. David Tennessen, who oversees the Ojai Honor Farm. “You put two rats in an enclosed box and they do fine. You add more and more, and pretty soon they start attacking each other. It’s the same for people.”

A sharp increase in the number of female inmates, which has more than doubled since the 1980s, has left authorities scrambling for ways to house everyone. The result for inmates is cramped living quarters, which has increased bickering among the women and taxed the nerves of the deputies watching over them.

“There are days when you’ve got 180 inmates here and you can already feel the tension when you walk in,” said Capt. Joe Funchess.

Authorities have come up with a plan to give everyone a little more elbow room. In June, a second housing unit at the jail used to house men will become a women-only facility. The men are scheduled to move into a new wing of the Todd Road Jail in Santa Paula.

In the 1970s, a small jail on Poli Street in Ventura housed about 70 female inmates. They were moved to the main jail in Ventura, where the population never rose above 100 inmates.

In 1983, the women were transferred to one of two buildings at the Ojai jail. As their numbers continued to increase they outgrew the facility’s capacity, authorities said.

The jail, designed to hold about 100 inmates, now struggles to maintain order with 160 to 200 women.

Housing units within the jail, four large rooms with showers, were built to hold approximately 24 inmates. Instead, they are often holding more than 50.

Authorities have been forced to squeeze in extra bunk beds. They have also triple-layered the bunks, leaving a scant 2-foot space between one mattress and another. For heavier inmates, slipping in and out of bed is a struggle.

“It’s tight,” said an inmate identified only as Colleen, 34. “If I want to turn over in the middle of the night, I have to get out of bed and walk around to the other side because there’s just no room.”

In an environment so pressed for personal space, the bed becomes an important possession. Leaning on someone else’s bunk is an offense that could end with a few blows in the showers, inmates say.

“People aren’t very tolerant when you’re living so close together,” said Jessica Ryan, 36, one of 54 inmates sharing a housing unit.

Bickering is part of the regular routine inside the jail--with tiffs erupting over everything from bunk touching to such issues as what to watch on television or who gets to use the telephone.

“Just to give you an idea, I got into a bickering match the other day because of the way I was sweeping the floor,” Colleen said.

Also, with so many people in one room, the noise level in a housing unit can reach a deafening roar, inmates say.

“There are certain times when this place is so loud,” said inmate Yvonne Mendez, 31, “that you can’t hear, you can’t play cards, you can’t make a phone call. . . . My tolerance gets really low then.”

Inmates are never going to be happy with the conditions inside a jail, authorities acknowledge. But the overcrowding has made it more difficult for deputies working the jail to keep the peace, which jeopardizes the safety of inmates as well as employees.

A major problem is the inability to see everything going on in a housing unit. While deputies are required to enter the units at least once an hour, most surveillance of inmates is done from the outside. But so many high bunk beds hinder the view, and keeping track of everyone’s activities becomes difficult.

Inmates say that is why the misbehavior of one could mean punishment for all 50 inmates within a unit.

“We know that in some of those corners it’s very difficult for them to see,” one inmate said. “So the majority of the time they can’t pinpoint who did something. So then they’re like, ‘Well, then all of you will be punished.’ ”

“Basically, we lash out at each other, and then they lash out at us,” Colleen said.

Often the staff-to-inmate ratio is about 5 to 160. That is tough for staffers trying to accommodate inmates coming and going to jail programs, court appearances and meetings with attorneys. Staffers also ensure that inmates are fed and clothed and help them with personal problems, such as illness and settling disputes.

“We have to do everything for the inmates,” Funchess said. “It gets hectic. About 3 a.m. we start getting breakfasts ready, and it just goes and goes and goes and doesn’t stop until about 7 at night.”

Currently the jail is home to 155 inmates--nearly five dozen more than the facility is designed to hold--but fewer than authorities have seen in recent months. Judges tend to put off sentences until after the holidays, Funchess said, and so he expects the numbers to swell again after Jan. 1.

When numbers rise, authorities will again be strapped for beds and space. Keeping apart inmates who shouldn’t be housed together will be a top priority. The heavy crowding makes it more difficult to separate out those who are violent, ill, mentally disturbed, high security risks or can’t get along with others.

“You know, you get people in here who are in rival gangs that don’t get along in the street,” Tennessen said, “and guess what? They aren’t going to get along in jail, either. We have to keep those people apart.”

Authorities say it’s a significant problem because female inmates aren’t just growing in number, they are becoming more violent.

“Just like we’re getting rid of the glass ceiling in the work environment,” Tennessen said, “we’re getting rid of it in the criminal environment. Not just drunk drivers or some robberies. Now it’s assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder, the same things men have been doing all along.”

Some relief is on the way for the overworked staffers and overcrowded inmates. In June, authorities plan to move the 100 men housed at the Honor Farm’s second facility to Todd Road Jail in Santa Paula.

The women can then be divided between the two buildings, with about 100 women in each, and the bunk beds will return to double layers. An expanded set of programs for the female inmates is also planned, including horticulture, education and possibly culinary classes.

“The changes are going to make things easier for everyone,” Funchess said. “It’ll be easier on the workers, easier on their supervisors and easier for me. But mostly, it’ll be better for the inmates, which is why we’re doing it. It should relieve all this tension.”