Study on Hospital Conversion Ordered

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered a feasibility study on converting Mid-Valley Hospital in Van Nuys into a home for youth offenders when the county opens Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar.

Chief Probation Officer Barry Nidorf said the plan would relieve crowding at the 1,380-bed San Fernando Valley Juvenile Hall in Sylmar, where 370 youths now sleep on mattresses on the floor because of a shortage of beds.

Nidorf said the plan, which requires the supervisors’ approval, would pose “no increased danger” to the community because it would use the hospital to house 25 to 50 youths who would be placed in private homes if space were available. Nidorf said most of the juveniles who would be housed in the facility were convicted of drug crimes and crimes against property.

Nidorf was instructed to report in 30 days on the feasibility of the proposal.

The county bought Mid-Valley, a private hospital, shortly after Olive View Medical Center was destroyed in the Feb. 9, 1971, earthquake. Supervisors had planned to close the aging facility after Olive View’s reconstruction, expected to be completed in February or March.

Supervisors recently decided to study other uses for Mid-Valley, including housing abandoned and abused children there to relieve crowding at the county’s MacLaren Children’s Center in El Monte.