3 Officials at Youth Prison Are Suspended

The director of the state prison system on Wednesday suspended the top three administrators at scandal-plagued Ventura School after investigators found a 20-year pattern of mismanagement and sexual misconduct at the juvenile prison near Camarillo.

Robert B. Presley, secretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, placed the administrators on paid leave pending his analysis of a scathing report completed Wednesday by the state inspector general’s office.

The report found “a systemic problem” of lax management that minimized sexual misconduct by employees and inmates, and resulted in unfair treatment and sexual harassment of women employees.

It noted “a climate of fear among employees,” a system that is slow to take action to solve problems and 64 misconduct investigations by internal affairs in 1998 alone.

It cited two cases where top administrators allegedly were untruthful in comments to a state board. A former superintendent violated policy by engaging in inappropriate personal relations with subordinates, the report said.

And security is so poor at the youth prison, the report said, that a state investigator posed as a customer for a prison dog-grooming business and was admitted to the facility even though his ID did not match the name under which he had booked the appointment. Nor was it questioned why a Northern Californian would come to Camarillo for dog-grooming.

“A failure of leadership does not start at the bottom,” Presley said in a written statement. He said the suspensions are consistent with his pledge at his recent confirmation hearings to “act fairly, swiftly and with integrity when staff fails to meet expectations.”

School Supt. Mary Herrera, Assistant Supt. Chuck Kubasek and Chief of Security James J. McDuffy left work Wednesday after being notified of their suspensions, and could not be reached for comment. Herrera, 48, has worked at the school since 1997; Kubasek, 52, since 1995, and McDuffy, 54, since 1980.

A final decision on their future will not be made for at least a month, said Lisa Beutler, a spokeswoman for Presley.

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“These are allegations and are not proven to any legal body,” Beutler said. “We are in the process of requesting that all the investigative information be reviewed so we can reach some resolution in terms of the facts.”

California Youth Authority Director Francisco Alarcon met with school employees Wednesday to explain the situation. An interim superintendent, veteran CYA administrator Gregory C. Lowe, will take charge today, Alarcon spokesman J.P. Tremblay said.

State Sen. Cathie Wright, who requested the state investigation and in whose district the school is situated, said the suspensions are a step in the right direction.

“But I’m not going to be satisfied until Alarcon is given his walking papers,” Wright said. “Where does the buck stop? It stops at his desk. Only when a red flag is raised does he do anything about these problems.”

Alarcon, head of the youth authority since 1995, did not respond to Wright’s comments.

The inspector general’s office began investigating conditions at Ventura School six months ago, after Wright told investigators that six women had complained to her about mismanagement and sexual harassment. Since then, at least six additional current or former employees have complained of abusive conditions at the school.

The Ventura School has been a center of controversy since 1997, when Wright and other state lawmakers accused the youth authority of covering up inmate rapes by guards. Three correctional officers were later fired or forced out.

The current turmoil has prompted two parallel investigations--the inspector general’s probe and a separate youth authority investigation into possible criminal sexual misconduct by employees.

A former Ventura School teacher was charged in January with having oral sex with two 17-year-old inmates. And youth authority investigators say criminal cases against seven other former and current employees have been sent to local prosecutors.

Already, nine school employees have been fired or forced out since April, authorities said.

The 103-page inspector general’s report forwarded to Wright Wednesday only adds fuel to the controversy. In a five-page summary letter, Inspector General Lloyd Wood condemns Ventura School management, past and present.

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“The most apparent and significant pattern we found is an intense climate of fear and suspicion among employees,” Wood said. “This climate appears to have permeated the organization for some time spanning various administrations.”

That fear is justified, he concluded, because of a disparity in the treatment of men and women and retaliatory actions taken against employees who complain about conditions at the school.

“The study also reveals that sexual misconduct among staff and wards has been going on for a long time,” Wood said. “This is not to say that this type of behavior is condoned by staff, nor are we saying that a majority of staff engaged in this type of behavior. What we found strikingly noticeable is that the outrage this misconduct would create among the general public is not found among staff.”

When school administrators have cracked down on misconduct, there is evidence they have acted selectively, the report said. “A widespread belief also exists that people who report misconduct of favored employees have been retaliated against in subtle and not so subtle ways.”

Even the school’s chaplains reported a climate of intimidation at the school, saying one administrator frequently demeaned them by using abusive and blasphemous language and restricted their ability to help inmates.

Ventura School’s management problems stretch back nearly two decades, the report said. It cited a youth counselor who became pregnant by a youth parolee in 1980. She resigned but was rehired, and finally fired in 1992 after various incidents of similar misbehavior, Wood said.

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The school took nearly a decade to construct its case against another youth counselor, who abruptly took retirement in 1997, left his wife and moved in with a recently paroled inmate, Wood said.

As the youth authority finally began cracking down on misconduct in 1998, hiring eight state investigators, it probed 64 cases. Of those investigations completed, 92% have verified misconduct, the report said. The report was particularly critical of the management of former Supt. Manuel A. Carbajal, who ran the school for three years ending in 1993 and is the subject of eight misconduct complaints.

“Carbajal’s administration was described as based on fear and intimidation with racial and sexual overtones,” Wood’s report said. “It was perceived that Hispanic staff members and wards received preferential treatment and that female employees only advanced their careers by providing favors, some sexual, to management.”

Carbajal retired suddenly as superintendent of a youth authority facility in Norwalk in November after being questioned by state investigators about his conduct at Camarillo and Norwalk, Wood said.

As for current administrators, Wood said Herrera knowingly accepted and forwarded an incomplete investigation into an employee’s conduct, then apparently did not tell the truth in her assertions to the State Personnel Board.

Wood also said Herrera halted an inquiry into what he found to be a “pattern of misconduct” by a youth counselor that had lasted several years.

And Herrera contributed to the facility’s climate of mistrust and intimidation by telling her employees that “Staff are expendable,” the report said.

The inspector general also found there was sufficient evidence to sustain allegations that Assistant Supt. Kubasek made false and misleading statements under oath to the State Personnel Board and attempted to interfere with another witness’ testimony.