Ventura County jail officials have begun releasing many inmates earlier than previously expected, to comply with a new state law that gives nonviolent offenders more time credits for good behavior.

Since the law took effect Jan. 25, the Ventura County Sheriff's Department has released 188 inmates early under its provisions, sheriff's officials said Wednesday. That figure represents almost 13 percent of the average total inmate population in county jails. Of the 188, 113 were released on the first day the law took effect.

The law also led to the early release of 22 people in the Ventura County Probation Agency's Work Furlough program, said Chief Probation Officer Karen Staples. The program allows certain inmates to work during the day and return to custody at night…

It may be a bit too soon to write the obituary for the proposal to replace the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility near Camarillo with a healthcare prison for adults, but preliminary funeral arrangements seem to be in order.

The decision last week by federal prison healthcare receiver J. Clark Kelso to put a vastly scaled-down construction proposal on the table was a clear sign of retreat — an acknowledgement that the state's crippling fiscal crisis requires a more modest plan to improve the dreadful health-treatment conditions inside California's overcrowded prisons. Kelso's least-expensive option would take Camarillo out of the picture…

Prison healthcare receiver J. Clark Kelso today submitted three construction options to the federal court — including a pared-down plan that would eliminate the possibility of building a prison healthcare facility in Camarillo.

The least expansive option proposes just three facilities with a combined 5,000 beds exclusively for inmates with medical needs.

Kelso is asking the courts to convene hearings to take comments from state officials and plaintiffs representing inmates…

Signs protesting a Ventura County prison hospital lined a Camarillo park Sunday, where members of a community group handed out fliers and answered questions about a proposal they say would change the quality of life in the county.

The proposal calls for converting the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility into a 1,500-bed adult prison healthcare facility. The facility for inmates with chronic medical and mental health problems is one of seven that court-appointed Receiver J. Clark Kelso envisions around the state as part of the effort to restore healthcare in California prisons to constitutional standards.

Members of the community-based Prison Hospital Action Committee, however, say the plan would undermine the county's medical system, lower home prices and threaten safety, among other consequences…

An open letter to Ventura County residents, released last week from the federally appointed receiver assigned to develop a healthcare facility in Camarillo for incarcerated criminals, contained one basic message:

The controversial project is going forth with all engines firing.

The Sept. 23 note, so far the only direct, formal communication J. Clark Kelso has had with members of the community, was written as a means to assuage the buildup of concern about the proposed 1,500-bed center slated for construction sometime next year…

For months the prison czar, Clark Kelso, has been threatening to open a 1500 bed prison hospital in Ventura County. This guy is such a wimp that he has refused to come into the county and meet with the citizens. Today he sent a letter to "concerned citizen's". Did you get your copy? I didn't, but a friend sent it to me.

Kelso wants you to know why he is doing this to us, but is afraid of coming to the county and answering questions. That is why he sent a letter to a few people–he is unwilling to face the people of Ventura County, he is unable to answer our questions, and when he places 1500 criminals in our county, and the gangs that will visit them, he will continue to live in his safe community, far from any prison.

On October 6 a court will determine if he can steal $8 billion to build his prisons. What he did not note in his court filings is that he refuses to have any legislative over site. Then when the prisons are finished he is refusing to be audited by the legislature or an independent public agency. This is how they do it in Chicago, not California…

The Camarillo City Council has authorized hiring a consultant to find out how much a prison hospital could cost the city and surrounding area.

At its meeting Wednesday night, the council voted 5-0 to spend up to $50,000 for the Natelson Dale Group to conduct a review of economic issues associated with a proposed prison hospital just beyond the city limits. The council opposes the project and previously authorized hiring a different consultant to review environmental concerns.

Federal receiver J. Clark Kelso has selected the current site of the Ventura County Youth Facility on Wright Road as one of seven spots in California for prison hospitals. The facility is expected to house 1,500 physically and mentally ill inmates…

Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long, 37th Assembly District candidate Ferial Masry and representatives of Congressman Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, Assemblywoman Audra Strickland, R-Moorpark, 19th District Senate candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson, and Senator Diane Feinstein, D-California, attended a meeting Thursday organized by the Prison Hospital Action Committee, which seeks to halt the construction of a prison hospital near Camarillo.

Federal receiver J. Clark Kelso plans to construct a 1,500-bed hospital for physically and mentally ill inmates at the current site of the Ventura County Youth Facility. The hospital is part of a plan to build seven facilities around the state to address the healthcare needs of inmates…

As a Ventura County resident and parent of two young children, I am firmly opposed to the planned conversion of the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility near Camarillo into a 1,500-bed prison hospital for level 3 and level 4 prisoners. These convicts may not have committed the worst crimes, but have exhibited the most violent behaviors while in prison and are the most problematic to correction officers.

Furthermore, this issue certainly highlights the frustration Californians feel with a judicial branch of government that simply ignores the sentiments of a community…

Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks said local law enforcement opposes the construction of the maximumsecurity prison hospital proposed for Camarillo.

Brooks was one of five panelists to address issues concerning the facility with about 300 people at Mesa Union School in Somis last Thursday. The meeting was organized by the Prison Hospital Action Committee, a group of residents who are opposed to the facility.

"The concerns are that the hospital is not an acute healthcare hospital and a lot of people there will have fairly serious behavioral and physical health problems. They will have to be transported . . . to hospitals in this area."

Brooks is concerned about inmates potentially escaping en route to or at the hospital…

Add the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to the list of local officials who are against the proposed prison hospital near Camarillo.

The board voted 4-0 Tuesday to send a letter to the federal receiver overseeing the California prison healthcare system, J. Clark Kelso, urging him to take Camarillo off the list of potential sites for new hospitals.

Kelso is charged by a federal judge with bringing the standard of care in the prison system up to constitutional standards, and his proposed solution is to build seven hospitals, one of them at the current site of the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility outside Camarillo…

Several years ago when a huge controversy broke out over lethal injection, a human rights activist was asked, "Why should we care if a convicted murderer should feel any pain when getting lethal injection?"

The activist replied, "Because we are supposed to be more civil than them."

In the showdown between the City of Camarillo and Federal Receiver J. Clark Kelso over replacing Camarillo's juvenile detention facility with a prison hospital, it appears the real losers are and have always been the prisoners…

A "supervised health facility" for prison inmates will pose no threat to nearby residents or a youth correctional facility, and can boost the local economy by creating new jobs, according to officials for the proposed project slated for construction in Camarillo.

In response to claims voiced last week by opponents of a $7 billion plan to make Camarillo one of seven statewide locations housing a clinic for gravely ill criminals, supporters of the project have since come forth to disprove some perceived inaccuracies that could hurt its chances of succeeding in Ventura County.

Though the facility is planned as a 1,500-bed, maximum security operation on Wright Road, the stereotyped image of a foreboding penitentiary striking fear into local residents who hide behind bolted doors is false, says Luis Patino, a spokesman for Federal Receiver J. Clark Kelso, who put forth the project…

About 140 people assembled at the Sterling Hills Golf Course Clubhouse on Thursday evening to join the Prison Hospital Action Committee, a community effort created to fight the construction of a prison hospital just outside Camarillo.

"This is a roll-up-your-sleeves, get-to-work type of meeting," said Kathi Miller, a Camarillo resident spearheading the effort.

J. Clark Kelso, a federal receiver charged with bringing California's prison healthcare system in line with the U.S. Constitution, has proposed shutting down the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility on Wright Road and replacing it with a hospital for 1,500 adult inmates with physical and psychological problems…

Despite the soaring temperatures of last week's heat wave, close to 300 Camarillo residents attended an informational meeting to discuss the proposed state medical facility in Camarillo at the Ventura County Office of Education late last week.

Assemblymember Audra Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) hosted the town hall meeting that addressed the proposed 1,500-bed facility slated to be built on the campus of the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility on Wright Road.

Strickland outlined why the state has put Camarillo at the top of its list as one of the locations for the seven federal court mandated health facilities California must build…

J. Clark Kelso, the federal court-appointed receiver responsible for bringing California's prison healthcare system up to constitutional standards, argued that our coastal location is optimal to attract physicians and other professionals needed to staff the facility, and the facility would infuse into the county's economy $80 million in annual payroll alone.

UCSB economist Bill Watkins responded that we already have a shortage of healthcare professionals, so our hospitals would have to compete with the new facility for existing professionals. Rep. Elton Gallegly also voiced his opposition, noting that "this facility would further reduce property values, which have already been hard hit by the decline of the California housing market."

I suppose that some residents might want to ask the representative whether we should be more concerned about property values or the ever-increasing number of foreclosures in the county. I live in Oxnard, where the county's work force traditionally has been housed…

Saying it is time for "state leaders to face their constitutional obligations," federal receiver J. Clark Kelso on Thursday asked a judge to give him authority to inspect the state's financial accounts in anticipation of having to seize the cash he needs to build seven new prison healthcare facilities.

Kelso, who is in charge of a court-ordered effort to fix a prison healthcare system that District Court Judge Thelton Henderson ruled in 2005 was "broken beyond repair," filed a motion asking Henderson to add Controller John Chiang to the list of defendants and to give the receiver access to the controller's internal records.

With the state facing a potential cash-flow crisis if a budget is not adopted by the end of July, Chiang this week intimated there might not be enough money available to satisfy Kelso's request even with a court order…

The district attorney's decision to try 14-year-old Brandon McInerney as an adult in the killing of another boy is part of a soaring trend in Ventura County. In the past two years, the number of juvenile offenders tried as adults has nearly tripled from 10 in 2006 to 27 in 2007, officials say — a nearly 170 percent increase. Also, in the four previous years — from 2002 to 2005 — the total number of such cases was just five, according to figures from the Ventura County District Attorney's Office…