RED TAPE STALLS WOMEN'S JAIL.

Byline: Holly Edwards Staff Writer

CASTAIC - Nearly two years after Pitchess Detention Center received a $3.3-million grant to build a women's facility, the project remains in limbo as county and state officials sort through federal policy changes governing construction projects.

Neither Sheriff's Department nor state Board of Corrections officials could say when the project could begin, whether an environmental study will be required, or even if such a study had already begun.

``The bottom line is we have to do some type of assessment to see if environmental work will be required, and we can't start the project until we get clearance from the federal government,'' said Doug Holien, field representative for the state Board of Corrections.

The delay has frustrated Sheriff's Department officials who had hoped to have the new women's jail complex up and running last year.

``So many variables have come up, it's hard to keep track of them,'' said Sgt. Anita Byrum, who will head the female inmate program when it gets off the ground. ``But we just have to keep working through the obstacles.''

While construction of the women's jail facility is mired in red tape, Sheriff's Department officials are moving forward with a separate facility that will house female inmates and their babies.

Known as the Miracle Program, the facility will house up to 20 women and their babies and is expected to be complete in about 18 months, Byrum said. The Sheriff's Department is funding the project with $4.2 million in county dollars, which are immediately available.

Problems with the women's jail facility arose in March 2000 when the federal Department of Justice announced a policy change that required the Sheriff's Department to complete an environmental impact report before construction of the project could begin, Holien said.

The Sheriff's Department was awarded the grant to build the 160-bed facility in May 1999. Officials had already hired an architect and begun demolishing old buildings to make room for the new jail when development came to a screeching halt.

Sheriff's Department officials hired a consulting firm to help them sort through the red tape and have been searching for answers ever since, officials said.

The department may not have to conduct an environmental impact study - a detailed analysis of the project's effects on the environment and surrounding community - because the women's facility will simply be a replacement of a men's facility, Holien said.

However, the department hasn't received clear answers from the federal government on whether the new requirement applies.

``Everything's just in a basic holding pattern right now,'' Byrum said.

Despite the delay in getting the federal funding, the Sheriff's Department used $2.1 million of its own money to remodel four barracks last year. To help women inmates feel as if they are still connected to home, the barracks are surrounded by flower gardens and white fences and decorated with stenciled paintings of ivy leaves and potted plants.

The amenities are part of a national trend among prisons to treatcorrection as rehabilitation instead of punishment, Byrum said.

Computer training and vocational classes will also be available to the 400 women who will live at the jail complex when it is completed, she said.

Members of the Castaic Citizens Advisory Committee, a group set up to advise Pitchess officials, say they support the county's efforts to help female inmates.

``I always have reservations about how much rehabilitation we can do, but if these ladies can be taught to lead productive lives, I'm all for it,'' said Sam Azhderian, committee chairman. ``And I think the flowers and white fences will be like a headlight for the jail.''