Todd Road Jail could be expanded after grant application approved
July 19, 2013
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Todd Road Jail just might be expanded, after Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean got permission Tuesday from the Board of Supervisors to go after a state grant that would largely pay for a $35 million jail addition.
The grant would fund a 64-bed medical unit to house inmates with serious mental illness and chronic medical problems at the jail - located just west of Santa Paula - and free up cell space for the general population at the Main Jail in Ventura.
Dean said the shift of prisoners to local jails through realignment - a policy aimed at cutting the population in California’s state prisons - has created the need for expanded space, and the state grant created to help offset local cost impacts is the source of the funding. Dean told supervisors he was seeking “authorization to apply for the state grant” funds for “jail construction; the bill came about as a result of realignment.”
Ventura County “has a long history of providing quality healthcare” and treatment for the mentally ill. “It’s not only a constitutional mandate,” said Dean, “but also a humane one... probably 30 percent of our jail population has been diagnosed with mental illness.”
The Todd Road Jail was the focus of a lawsuit by the city and environmental groups against the county in the early-1990s. The jail was to be built in phases, but only the first - about 800 beds - was completed, less than half of the initially planned 2,000-plus-bed facility.
The 20-acre Todd Road Jail sits next to a 137-acre county-owned lemon orchard. The 202,923 square foot jail facility was designed in a modular manner to allow expansion without the added cost of kitchen, laundry and heating systems.
Dean told supervisors, “64 beds we think is reasonable, the very low end of the options” that ranged as high as 900 additional beds. The addition will be single-story, a crucial design element when dealing with mentally ill inmates.
Dean estimated it would take three years to complete the expansion and said staffing requirements would be “very low, very efficient and the costs are very reasonable.” Although he noted supervisors were being asked “just for approval to go after the grant, I think we will be successful” in obtaining funds for expansion.
The county’s portion of the match is estimated at $2.3 million.
During questioning by supervisors, Dean said Ventura County is “overcrowded, but less overcrowded than many jails in the state,” and the medical/mental illness facility addition at Todd Road Jail would free up space to create 120 additional general population beds at the Main Jail.
Supervisor Kathy Long, who represents the river valley including Santa Paula, told Dean the board should be copied on the application so they have detailed information such as cost per bed. “Also, I ask you to reach out to the community of Santa Paula,” said Long, as “I know there are some concerns there... I’ll be happy to work with you on that.”
Board Chairman Peter Foy noted that the already staffed medical/mental health units would “just be put in a different building... it’s not like starting from scratch.”
Supervisors endorsed Dean applying for the grant application, without any members of the public offering comment.
