COUNTYWIDE : Bond Money Sought for Juvenile Hall

The County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to apply for $3.6 million in state bond money for a new youth detention facility to relieve overcrowding at the county’s juvenile hall.

But the decision doesn’t commit the supervisors to spending $2.3 million in required local matching funds for the $6-million facility--a concern they expressed during the hearing.

F. William Forden, director of the county’s Corrections Services Agency, said the project could be scaled down at any point during the planning process, although the county would still have to match any state funds with 25% to the state’s 75%.

The state money would come from funds generated by Proposition 86, approved by voters in 1988 to finance construction of and repairs to juvenile facilities.

The proposed low-security youth facility would house 42 inmates and relieve Clifton Tatum Center on Hillmont Avenue in Ventura. The juvenile lockup is a high-security building that houses 84 inmates, but as recently as last week, the population reached 96. It hit 109 early last year.