T.O. Chamber discusses impact prison hospital will have on Conejo
Facility gets virtually no support from local officials
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

A federal judge appointee, known as a receiver, is considering construction of a 1,500-bed prison hospital in Camarillo for state inmates.

It's being opposed by local, state and national elected officials, real estate professionals, law enforcement agencies, residents, and now the Thousand Oaks-Westlake Village Regional Chamber of Commerce Governmental Relations Committee.

On Tues., Aug. 27, Rondi Guthrie, assistant chief of staff to state Assemblywoman Audra Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks), filled in for her boss, who was in Sacramento working on the tardy state budget. Guthrie told the Chamber committee about the downside of having a Ventura County Prison Hospital in Camarillo.

J. Clark Kelso, the federal receiver, is planning to build seven skilled nursing facilities at a cost of $8 billion to the state of California. The complex wouldn't include surgical operating rooms or other acute care facilities. Kelso was appointed after a class action lawsuit filed in 2001 was decided. That litigation found that California lacked adequate medical care for prisoners.

A federal judge appointed the receiver to rectify the problem.

"The 1,500 beds planned exceed the total beds in all the hospitals in Ventura County at this time," said Gerald Arcurri, vice president of the Hospital Association of Southern California.

The plan for the prison hospital calls for 700 correctional staff along with 700 medical personnel, but Arcurri estimates the prison hospital will need at least 3,000 staff members to man the 1-million-square-foot facility.

"Our big concern is that hospitals already have a severe nursing shortage in Ventura County. The receiver will pay higher wages with incentives and bonuses, taking staff from local hospitals, and that will cause suffering for law-abiding citizens," said Guthrie.

Complicating matters, the barbed wire fences and guard towers, she said, won't help the area's real estate market.

Since there will be no acute care available, those who need surgery or other urgent medical procedures will have to be removed from the facility and transported elsewhere, Guthrie said. That, coupled with the possibility of escape, will create more work for local law enforcement agencies, she said.

Peace officers from nearby police and sheriff's departments will, like local medical staff members, be lured away by higher salaries available at the prison hospital, Guthrie said.

The expected increase in wages could hit 30 percent, said Thousand Oaks Police Department Capt. Randy Pentis. He described those incarcerated at the facility as "very dangerous."

Other prospective sites for the prison hospital are locations that already have nearby prisons.

"Some communities, unlike Ventura County, welcome the jobs and the facilities," Guthrie said.

The prospective site is currently owned by the state's prison system. The Ventura County Youth Correctional Facility occupies the land, and juvenile female murderers are among those housed there, Pentis said.

The receiver needs state money and Strickland is willing to work with him to get funds— if he'll agree to take Camarillo off the table, Guthrie said.

Strickland is also looking into other legal maneuvers that would stop the prison hospital from being built in her district.

Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks said at the meeting that the board of supervisors is officially opposed to the prison hospital coming to Camarillo.

The Chamber committee voted to also oppose the concept. A motion will be forwarded to the Chamber's board of directors recommending official opposition to the facility, said committee chairperson Phil Koonce.