State Official Backs Plan for Criminal Patients

Despite issuing a report that recommends closing Camarillo State Hospital next year, California’s top mental health official Thursday urged Ventura County residents to support treating mentally ill criminals at the aging facility.

Dr. Stephen W. Mayberg’s comments--indicating a willingness to keep the hospital open as a forensic mental facility--were made during a private meeting in Sacramento with several state employee union leaders.

A spokeswoman for his office said Mayberg recommends that Ventura County residents support bringing in mentally ill patients--including, perhaps, sexual predators--as a means of keeping the hospital open.

“The recommendation now to the community is that Camarillo State could be converted to a forensic facility that may include sexually violent predators,” said Nora Romero of the state Department of Mental Health.

Three labor representatives for hospital workers came away from the meeting convinced that Mayberg was even more committed to Camarillo State than he would allow in public.

Brian Bowley and Maureen Lynch, who represent nearly two-thirds of the facility’s 1,500 employees, said Mayberg told them he would recommend to Gov. Pete Wilson that the hospital remain open.

According to Bowley and Lynch, Mayberg also said that Camarillo State would definitely be shut down if sexual predators were not brought in to help reduce per-patient costs--an idea that has not been popular with local officials.

A third union leader said Mayberg told her that he would recommend that state legislators vote to keep Camarillo State operating.

“Mayberg officially said his recommendation to the governor would be for conversion [of Camarillo State] to a forensic facility,” said Bowley, president of the Camarillo chapter of the psychiatric technicians’ union.

“It’s not a done deal by any means,” he said. “It still hinges on what the community thinks. But [Mayberg] said there are not enough beds to make this viable without sexually violent predators being part of the equation.”

Romero said that any recommendation to the governor is premature at this point. Mayberg “could make that recommendation down the line, but not without meeting with the community,” she said.

Camarillo State Executive Director David Freehauf is expected to outline details of the meeting to employees at two town hall-style meetings today. Both are open only to hospital workers.

Lynch said the discussion Thursday was unequivocal.

“Mayberg was very clear,” said Lynch, who represents several hundred Camarillo State nurses and other workers. “We’re dealing with a three-month window.”

By late May, the state Senate will be preparing to vote on a budget redrawn from the January spending plan submitted by Wilson. The governor’s budget and a report written by Mayberg both conclude that the hospital should close.

Lynch said that Mayberg suggested to her that hospital workers spend the next three months trying to persuade legislators to support keeping the hospital open by bringing in sexually violent predators.

“The focus seems to be, ‘We’ve got this window of time, so let’s do it’ ” Lynch said. “If we’re unsuccessful, the next time we all meet, it could be to negotiate layoff contracts.”

Employees are better suited to selling the concept of treating sexual predators and other mentally ill patients to the Ventura County community because they work with them daily, Lynch said.

“Sexually violent predators can be easier to deal with than other types of patients,” she said.

Cindie French, leader of another local union representing Camarillo State workers, said Mayberg told her he would advise legislators to vote to keep the hospital open.

She said she and Mayberg discussed plans Thursday to improve security at Camarillo State and bring in a certain number of sexual predators.

“We deal with more aggressive and more dangerous individuals now than most sexually violent predators,” said French, a music therapist and a local leader of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

“Our individuals now are more unpredictable because they’re unstable,” she said. “So if the community does not support some type of forensic population at Camarillo State, it will be gone.”

The union leaders conceded that Mayberg’s eventual recommendation to Wilson and the state Legislature would be substantially influenced by local legislators and city and county residents.

Sen. Cathie Wright, a Simi Valley Republican who has organized a meeting on March 8 to solicit public input, doubts that Ventura County will embrace sexual predators, even if that means losing 1,500 jobs and an $80-million annual payroll.

“I can’t go along with this sexual predator stuff,” Wright said. “I don’t want to see a situation where we have to make it a heavier security area. I don’t think the people will go along with that.”