State authorizes remaining funding for Todd Road Jail mental health unit

April 26--The CaliforniaBoard of State and Community Corrections has authorized the remaining funding to build a $61 million medical and mental health facility at the Todd Road Jail near Santa Paula.

The board in November granted Ventura County a partial award of $25.6 million for the planned 64-bed unit.

The board this month awarded Ventura County the remaining $29.4 million after San Francisco County relinquished its conditional funding because its Board of Supervisors balked at using the money for a detention facility.

"Ventura County now has full funding of $55,137,000," corrections board spokeswoman Tracie Cone said Monday.

A Ventura County match of $6 million completes the project's funding.

The facility will ease crowding and improve treatment of inmates with psychiatric and medical conditions, officials said.

Ventura County Sheriff's Cmdr. Ron Nelson, who oversees the jail, said he was pleased with the full funding award.

"We're very excited about the opportunity to build this facility," he said.

Ventura County Executive Officer Mike Powers also was pleased, saying the additional $29.4 million award "reflects the quality of the project."

"The sheriff (Geoff Dean) and his team put a lot of thought into this," Powers said. "And to have it focus on medical and mental health services was exactly the right need. I think that the fact that it received such a favorable scoring validates that."

Before ground can be broken, the facility must be approved by the state Public Works Board. Construction isn't expected to begin for about two years, Nelson said.

"We'll be going through the design process first, working with an architect, and then the approval process," he said. Construction is "probably a couple years down the road."

Once it begins, the county will start receiving the state funding, said Magi Work, the corrections board's deputy director.

"We don't just give Ventura County a check for $55 million," she said. "We begin reimbursing them once they get into construction."

The state funding is from the lease-revenue bond financing program, which was established in Gov. Jerry Brown's 2014-15 budget and Senate Bill 863, the Adult Local Criminal Justice Facility Financing legislation. The legislation calls for the expansion of programming and treatment space, as well as re-entry program space and mental health and treatment space.

Ventura County must now go through an extensive process in an attempt to get the project approved by the state Public Works Board, Work said.

"The county must come up with the scope of the project, the schedule, and a three-page cost estimate of the project," she said. "And their CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) and due diligence status have to be completed. And then we go on to schematic documents submittal and design development submittal."

She said she doesn't expect construction to begin for at least 18 months.

"We give the counties up to 18 months to get established," she said. "And then it could take another year or two to start construction. It just really depends on that county. That county could get into construction within 18 months if they're ready."

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