Honor Farm plans called into question
By Kelly Feser Eells

Jack, who requested that his last name be withheld, is a longtime neighbor of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department Branch Jail Honor Farm.

Though Jack knew it had been there been "quite a long time," he didn't know it had been operating close to 50 years - first as a jail, then as an honor farm, and, finally, as a women's detention facility - or that it would be closed for good by mid-July, July 30, at the latest.
"I'd heard something about its possibly closing sometime this year, maybe next," he smiled. "But then, I don't follow local politics all that closely."

When asked what he thinks of Supervisors Steve Bennett and Linda Parks' recent proposal that the 117-acre facility be converted into housing for the mentally ill, Jack said, "Not much. That's even worse than turning it into a horse ranch, which there's been some talk about. I've been kind of worried about the possibility of horse corrals - and everything else that goes along with that kind of operation - going up across the street, but that, no."

Jack goes on to say that, while he "never had any problems and has, in fact, always kind of enjoyed" living so close to the honor farm (citing, among other pluses, the friendships he'd established with "a couple of sheriffs who've lived on-site, even the helicopters that used to take off right over my head") he'd prefer the land be privately developed than used "as yet another kind of lockdown facility.

"Since the farm's conversion to a women-only jail in the late 1990s, well, it's just not as pretty as it used to be. They got rid of the pig breeding operation; they're housing more violent, more hard-core offenders; and now, when I take a walk along the top of Woodland Avenue and look down, there's all this high-wire, maximum security stuff" reflecting the changes. "It used to be all you saw, or noticed, at least, was pasture, greenery," he said, indicating that he doubted any new, county-run operation would be welcome. "But I'll have to hear what everyone else has to say."

Kathy Walker, another neighboring resident, does follow local politics closely, including the (sometimes-heated) budget negotiations between Sheriff Bob Brooks - who announced last April that closing the honor farm would help offset a projected $10 million-dollar budget shortfall - and the Board of Supervisors, some of whom wondered aloud whether the announcement was "tactical," rather than practical.
Bennett was quoted as saying, "Sometimes ... department heads such as Brooks have an incentive to offer up the most high-profile, painful cuts possible to protect themselves from budget reductions.")

With respect to Bennett's recent proposal, Walker says, "While I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Bennett's observation that the county, indeed the state - thank you Proposition 13! - has a severe shortage of all lockdown facilities" (an observation underscored by the Grand Jury report of May 16, which found that "large numbers of mentally ill individuals are continually homeless in Ventura County, and the jail is the largest single provider of housing for the mentally ill"), "I think the 'Not In My Backyard' theory should apply here.

"During my 15 years of residency in Mira Monte, we Mira Monte residents have politely ignored the fact that there is, essentially, a jail facility in our own backyards. We've endured the early morning stench of offal, a byproduct of animal slaughtering, the chronic sound of helicopters circling, and increasing weekend traffic, magnified by (our) proximity to Lake Casitas."

Walker further notes that, "While Mira Monte residents reside outside the city limits, we still attend Ojai schools, have Ojai addresses, and carry out our lives in Ojai. We, however, do not enjoy the same safe haven restrictions enjoyed by the residents of the City of Ojai. The quaintness of Mira Monte has already been challenged by the arrival of Rite-Aid, McDonalds and Taco Bell.

"Adding insult to injury would be the addition of a mental health facility. I agree that there is a shortage of facilities in the county, but is the solution the Honor Farm? If we're really talking about utilizing unused facilities in the area, how about the old bowling alley? Although I doubt the East End residents would support that option.

"A better use of the honor farm property," she adds, "would be a scenic park overlooking the river bottom. You may have noticed that Mira Monte is not home to one single park - unless you consider the grassy lawn in front of Taco Bell a 'picnic area.'"

But it isn't likely there will be any decisions made about the soon-to-vacated property. Bennett and Parks placed a letter on the Supervisors' June 3 agenda, asking fellow Board members to direct Chief Executive Officer John Johnston "to return to our board with an evaluation" of the feasibility of their proposal. "The report," their jointly-signed letter reads, "besides listing the advantages and disadvantages of such a conversion, should provide staff's professional estimates on initial and long-term cost, overall budget impacts, and potential sources of funding for making this conversion."

Also, "the Behavioral Health department and other appropriate agencies should be consulted. The report should be sufficiently detailed to enable our Board to determine whether the issue merits further, more refined, analysis."

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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