Prison-Management Firm Gives Up on Lake View Terrace Site : Neighbors’ Uproar Kills Plan for Juvenile Facility

In the wake of strong community opposition, a private prison management firm has dropped its plans to convert the defunct Lake View Terrace hospital into a 200-bed detention center for juvenile delinquents, a company official said Thursday.

“We abandoned the idea because of the neighborhood uproar,” said Dean Dalby, director of corrections for Management and Training Corp. of Ogden, Utah. “It was a situation in which no rational feelings were going to prevail.”

The company’s plans came to light May 6 when it was told by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors that it must open a juvenile facility to qualify for a permit to turn the Artesian Oaks juvenile detention camp near Saugus into a minimum-security prison for parole violators. At that time, Dalby said the company was attempting to lease Lake View Medical Center, in the 16000 block of Eldridge Street, which closed because of financial difficulties last March.

Looking for Alternate Sites

Dalby said the company is looking at several other sites as possible locations for the juvenile center in order to keep its commitment to the county.

Angry homeowners who said they feared a juvenile center would bring more crime to their neighborhood, endanger their children and lower property values wasted little time in voicing their opposition to the plan.

A meeting called May 19 by the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn. to organize a protest against the juvenile facility attracted more than 300 people. Since then, residents have collected more than 1,000 signatures on petitions and sent hundreds of letters opposing the hospital conversion to elected officials and executives of the firm.

“It’s great that they decided to drop it,” said Wanda Roaf, a spokeswoman for the homeowners’ group. “I guess they saw what they were up against.”

Dalby, however, said he believes the residents’ opposition was “a little short-sighted.”

“This type of a facility could be a real credit to the neighborhood,” he said. “It would have been a very, very nice facility. The really sad thing is that I know there are a lot of juveniles who could be helped by our kind of program.”

The firm, which has been in business more than 20 years, runs a “very, very structured program” for the 6,000 juveniles and young adults at the 11 federal Job Corps centers the company operates in other states, Dalby said. The company’s entry into prison management field is a new venture.

Despite the company’s intentions to drop the project, Roaf said, residents will continue their efforts until a use for the hospital finally is determined.

“We can’t let our guard down,” she said. “We’re going to keep trying to find a more suitable occupant. Hopefully, it will be something in the health care field. We really do need a hospital. The closest one to us is in Sunland.”

Meanwhile, the fate of the hospital lies with federal bankruptcy officials. David Enzer, a member of the defunct medical center’s board of directors, said the hospital will be sold at auction to satisfy its debts if no bid to purchase the property is submitted soon.