Domestic Violence Continues to Fill Jails, Shelters

By the time you finish reading this sentence, someone in the nation--maybe in Ventura County--will have become the victim of domestic violence.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time to commemorate the courage of victims who seek help and recognize the efforts of law enforcement to put a dent in one of society’s most chronic problems.

It’s an issue that continues to trouble Ventura County.

Between 1988 and 1998, the number of arrests for domestic abuse in the county nearly doubled from 560 to 1,015, according to statistics recently released by the state Department of Justice.

During the same decade, arrests quadrupled in Oxnard from 88 to 374, doubled in Simi Valley from 47 to 92 and jumped by half in Thousand Oaks from 48 to 72, according to the stats.

Arrests have remained steady in Ventura, where there were 157 in 1988, 131 in 1992 and 156 in 1998.

In the first six months of this year in the area covered by the Sheriff’s Department, deputies responded to 739 reports of domestic violence, according to Eric Nishimoto, a department spokesman.

The county’s shelters for victims of abuse are full and hotlines are ringing off the hook, officials say.

But despite more people reporting the crime and tougher penalties for abusers, the situation of men, women and children slapping, kicking and punching each other continues to persist.

“Unfortunately, it’s just the way society keeps going,” Nishimoto said.

Judy Jenkins, spokeswoman for the county’s Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, said publicity about domestic violence educates people and prompts victims to make that first call.

In fact, before you finish this sentence, someone reading this will have decided to call a domestic abuse hotline.

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A new law that automatically sends certain repeat juvenile offenders to adult court will have little effect in Ventura County because it doesn’t include offenses that kids here most frequently commit, according to a prosecutor.

The law, which will take effect Jan. 1, says a 16-year-old with a prior felony conviction who commits murder, attempted murder, rape, kidnapping or discharges a gun during a felony will be dealt with as an adult.

Under the present system, prosecutors who want to try a 16-year-old as an adult must argue their case during a fitness hearing. A juvenile court judge decides if the case will be sent to adult court.

Under the new law, applicable cases will automatically go to adult court.

“It speeds things up a little bit,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Miles Weiss said. “But the list [of crimes in the new law] is very narrow and so restrictive that statistically, very few cases will fall into this list.”

Weiss estimated that about five cases a year would fall under the new law.

The crimes that most often land Ventura County juveniles in adult court include carjacking, robbery with a knife, assault with a deadly weapon and selling drugs, he said.

Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren, who oversees the county’s juvenile courts and also was just named to the state’s appellate court, also isn’t a fan of the law.

“It’s a radical change in the nature and policies regarding juveniles,” he said.

Perren said he wonders if taxpayers really want society’s troubled children treated as adults without hearing a judge’s opinion first.

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Employee morale has skyrocketed and cops are responding to calls a few seconds quicker now that a new $3-million dispatch center has opened at the Oxnard police station.

The center--the hub of 911 activity in the city--includes a $2-million computer system that allows dispatchers to push a single button that transmits information about an emergency to a radio dispatcher, who alerts officers in the field.

The old system forced dispatchers to manually type addresses and phone numbers into the computer before sending the call on.

“It’s much quicker and more responsive--whether it’s an officer who is on a pursuit or one who is holding someone at gunpoint and needs backup,” said Pat Cerra, the department’s dispatch training coordinator.

About $1 million of the federal grant used to build the center went toward designing a larger dispatch room, which has light-colored walls with blue lightning bolt designs and roomy work stations that comfortably hold the multiple computer monitors used by each dispatcher.

One set of monitors is used for incoming emergency calls. Separate monitors are for contact between officers and dispatchers.

The new center is soundproof and connects directly to the station, while the old center was small, drab and noisy, and employees were forced to walk outside to reach the station.

“When it comes to stress reduction, this is really beneficial and that helps us serve citizens better,” Cerra added.

Mighty important considering the 19 dispatchers in Oxnard handle 5,000 911 calls each month.

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E-mail can be sent to holly.wolcott@latimes.com.