PLAN TARGETS CROWDING AT JUVENILE HALL : RELEASE PROGRAM EASES COUNTY STRAIN.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Juvenile crime has created an overcrowding problem in Ventura County's institutions, leading to early releases and greater reliance on probation and social service professionals.

Corrections Services Agency officials said the so-called community confinement effort reduces crowding that can often lead to fights and lockdowns at juvenile hall. More juveniles also can be moved sooner through residential treatment, which provides counseling and education programs.

The effort, though, is viewed as a Band-Aid until the county can divert nonviolent offenders to a boot camp expected to open in Santa Barbara County by July 1997.

With more juveniles committing serious and violent crimes that bring longer sentences, overcrowding will remain a problem until a juvenile justice complex can be built, officials say.

County officials have only started discussing such a project, and the center is at least five years away, assuming funding is available.

``We've got a big bubble of kids moving into the crime-prone years,'' said Cal Remington, deputy director of corrections services.

``The stresses and strains for us in the last few years really have been in the juvenile area,'' he noted. ``We're at the point now where we can't manage our juvenile population in the institutions.''

The surge in juvenile crime is reflected in the annual juvenile arrest total for the five cities and unincorporated areas served by the Ventura County Sheriff's Department.

The annual total of juvenile felony and misdemeanor arrests has increased 42 percent from 1983 through 1995. During the same period, the annual total of adult felony and misdemeanor arrests has increased 21 percent.

Juveniles awaiting trial or court commitments to other institutions are housed at the Clifton Tatum Center, which is the county's juvenile hall. For the past 12 months, the average daily population was 110 compared with capacity for 84 beds.

Corrections officers work overtime, and extra staff is brought in to ensure maximum security in overcrowded housing units. Gang conflicts lead to fights and extended lockdowns for some juveniles, officials said.

``It's a pressure-cooker when there's a lot of kids here,'' said Terry Warnock, supervisor for the Clifton Tatum Center. ``The overcrowding is certainly driving the system.''

Colston Youth Center is the county's residential treatment program. Delinquent youths receive mental health and substance abuse counseling and are provided a full educational program by the county Superintendent of Schools.

Overcrowding isn't allowed, so there often have been as many as 25 youths waiting a month or more in juvenile hall for one of the 45 spaces, officials said.

Struggling to ease crowding at juvenile hall, corrections officials have been keeping a growing number of nonviolent offenders at home with the help of electronic monitors since early 1995.

A youth wears a transmitter about the size of a pager on a plastic strap that is programmed with an electronic box placed inside the home. A security company sends random electronic signals from the box when a youth is supposed to be home and notifies corrections officials of unauthorized absences.

The number of juveniles supervised on electronic monitoring has increased to between 25 and 30 on a given day, and corrections officials plan to double the number to more than 50 by early 1997.

``What we don't want is for the situation with overcrowding to get so bad that a court tells us not to go over the 84 beds. We would have no choice and would be forced to release more juveniles,'' Remington said.

For the past month, youthful offenders have been released early from the residential treatment program. Beginning on Monday, community commitments will be expanded, with each youth placed on electronic monitoring for the final 60 days of a sentence.

As a result, youths can be moved into residential treatment faster, and the population at juvenile hall can be reduced closer to a daily goal of 100.

``We're already seeing our population coming down,'' Warnock said. ``When you're in an overcrowded facility, you don't have enough recreation facilities, you don't have enough school space.

``It really creates difficulties,'' she explained. ``(Juvenile hall) was designed for a whole different kid beyond parental control, abused or neglected. At the worst, they did burglaries. Now there is an ongoing population of kids who have committed violent assaults, attempted murders or murders, serious drug offenses.''

Home supervision also requires daily checks by probation officers and therefore is more expensive than incarceration.

``We're speeding the process up,'' Remington acknowledged.

``But under the old system, they would get out early, but they would be under a probation that had anywhere from 55 to 100 kids,'' he noted. ``Now they will be under some form of electronic monitoring and the probation officers will have no more than 25 cases.''

Remington said corrections officials hope community commitment will ease crowding and improve treatment until more permanent housing solutions are available.

The interim solution is the boot camp set to open in Santa Barbara County a year from now. The camp will house nonviolent offenders from Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, with 20 beds reserved for Ventura.

The camp is paid for with a federal grant matched by county funds.

The long-term solution is building a juvenile justice center that would include a larger juvenile hall and residential treatment, juvenile courts, and offices for probation officers, district attorneys and public defenders. Remington said the goal is to open such a center five years from now.

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Chart: JUVENILE CRIME