JUVENILE OFFENDERS SKIRT JAIL; FACILITY'S OFFICIALS SEE MORE TURNAWAYS.

Byline: David Greenberg Daily News Staff Writer

Overcrowding prevented more than 1,300 youths from being admitted to the Clifton Tatum Center juvenile facility in 1997 and officials expect the same number of turnaways this year.

But next year, however, some juvenile offenders will not be able to dodge the legal bullet.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday appropriated an additional $600,000 to the $620,000 it approved in June for construction of new juvenile space by next July.

``It's a stop-gap measure but I think it's an important one,'' said Don Krause, the county's chief deputy probation officer.

To alleviate overcrowding at Tatum Center, officials plan to renovate the former adult furlough work complex at Camarillo Airport so it will house up to 40 inmates, ages 16 to 18, in the Juvenile Restitution Program.

Youths in that program, located adjacent to Tatum Center in Ventura, will be transferred to the airport facility.

That will free up space in Tatum Center because low-risk juvenile offenders there are to be moved to the existing juvenile building, which has 24 beds.

Although Tatum Center's capacity is 84 people, ages 12 to 18, the facility averages 112 on a given day and has housed as many as 137, according to Calvin Remington, the county's chief probation officer.

``It's just too many,'' he said. ``We can't adequately do our job.''

The supervisors transferred the $1.2 million to the Probation Agency's capital projects budget from unused funds last year and this fiscal year.

The bulk of the transfer will be earmarked for renovation of the Camarillo Airport facility while nearly $100,000 will go toward additional security fencing and cameras on the current site.

As a long-term solution to massive overcrowding, probation and other law enforcement officials are eyeing what county Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester called a ``mini-government center'' within five to seven years.

The complex, which could cost as much as $50 million in county, state and federal funds, would include a 240-bed juvenile facility, a 120-bed senior camp for ages 16 to 18, a 60-bed junior camp for ages 13 to 15, additional detention space, six courtrooms and office space for mental health and probation staff.

``We're probably 10 years behind the curveball,'' Remington said. ``We're desperate.''

Tatum Center housed 2,300 inmates, including many violent offenders, last year and officials expect possibly more in 1998.

An additional 1,300 nonviolent delinquents were sent home with orders to make regular visits to their probation officers. The county, however, has only about 50 electronic monitoring devices to keep track of offenders' whereabouts.