Ventura County Sheriff Says He’ll Close 2 Jails to Cover Budget Gap

Sheriff Bob Brooks announced Friday that he plans to begin closing two Ventura County jails by the end of April, decisions he declared foolish in the long run but necessary to cover a proposed $10-million budget gap.

The Sheriff’s Department would save $4.6 million by closing the women’s honor farm near Ojai and $800,000 by shuttering the East County Jail in Thousand Oaks. Elimination of the sheriff’s popular anti-gang unit is also being considered, Brooks said.

As an alternative, Brooks said he hopes the county Board of Supervisors will add $10 million to the proposed $165-million sheriff’s budget to maintain current services for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

“We recognize that the county has some real financial problems and that public safety is not the only priority,” Brooks said. “But I don’t think there’s any doubt in the mind of the taxpayers that it’s the most important priority to preserve.”

Supervisor Steve Bennett said he welcomed any proposed cuts by the sheriff, but questioned why Brooks placed such high-profile services first on the chopping block.

“It’s called the Washington Monument Syndrome,” Bennett said. “Say there’s a federal budget crisis, so the first response is: ‘We’re going to have to close the Washington Monument.’ You have to be concerned that an agency may offer up higher-profile cuts for effect on the public.”

Closing the women’s honor farm would cut 50 jobs and prompt movement of 200 inmates to the Todd Road Jail near Santa Paula, putting that decade-old facility near capacity, Brooks said. And if the Ojai lockup is shut down, the 1957-vintage facility cannot be reopened without tens of millions of dollars in upgrades.

Closure of the East County Jail, where suspects from Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Simi Valley and unincorporated areas are booked into custody, would eliminate another nine jobs. And it would force arresting officers to travel to the main Ventura County Jail in Ventura, doubling their travel time per arrest to two hours, the sheriff said.

That would translate to a minimum of 7,000 hours a year lost from patrols in east county communities, he said.

The sheriff said the 15-person Crime Suppression Unit, the backbone of the county’s anti-gang efforts, would also have to go.

Bennett said he would like the sheriff to consider cuts in management first. And the supervisor wondered whether the sheriff really needs four helicopters, including two backups.