Making New Room for Hope : $84-Million Juvenile Court Will Replace Aging, Crowded Trailers

From his cramped and cluttered office in a temporary trailer here, Juvenile Court Presiding Judge Francisco P. Briseno has witnessed the changing face of crime in recent years among young people in Orange County.

“Every morning I get lists of who’s taken into custody,” he said, “and every morning I’m amazed at the number of serious felonies committed by minors, the numbers carrying guns, and the number of kids in gangs.”

But as county officials prepare to open the new $84-million Betty Lou Lamoreaux Juvenile Justice Center next week, Briseno can also see from his trailer-office some room for hope--seven granite-faced stories of room.

The new center will replace a set of crowded “temporary” trailers that have served as the county’s juvenile courts in Orange for more than 17 years. It will house 15 new juvenile courtrooms, a 60-bed intake center, and legal support services, along with 13 family law and probate courtrooms.

In the next year, up to 10,000 suspected juvenile offenders--a rising number of them accused of serious and violent crimes--will pass through the center’s doors, along with more than 3,000 abused children, authorities project.

The Board of Supervisors, facing a $65-million budget shortfall next year, had considered a plan to postpone the opening of the new center for at least three months. But after opposition mounted to that idea, county officials backed down last year and allowed the center to move ahead as planned.

“This is a long time coming,” Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder said as court officials gave their first tour Monday of the new facility. “I’m overwhelmed.”

Of course, no amount of cherry-tinted oak or majestic glass ceilings will stem the rise in juvenile crime in the county, court officials acknowledge. But to Briseno, the new center is more than just a building: It portends a new and more “humane” handling of delinquents.

“My hope is that (with the new center) we will not end up alienating these kids and their families as much,” Briseno said.

In the existing facilities, “we found we were trying to take down barriers that we ourselves had built just bringing the kids in here,” he said.

Briseno explained that because of severe space limitations, parents would often end up waiting hours for their children--and would then pass along to the children their “resentment” of the system.

Offenders sometimes had to meet with their lawyers in crowded hallways, affording them virtually no privacy. And first-time delinquents would be held for hours in waiting rooms with hard-core gang members.

The mix, Briseno said, is a dangerous one for authorities trying to steer young offenders straight.

“The kid who’s there for the very first time,” mixed in with more jaded offenders, begins to believe that “it’s not bad to be bad,” he said.

The spacious new Juvenile Justice Center offers court authorities a host of new options--some of which may prove controversial.

First-time delinquents now will be housed apart from more serious repeat offenders.

Abused children in court on family law or other proceedings now will have their own waiting rooms that may be outfitted with a video system to allow the children to testify from outside the courtroom. This would allow court participants to see and question the child, but the child would not have to go through the ordeal of confronting the alleged abuser, Briseno said.

And at the new intake center--attached to the existing 314-bed Juvenile Hall--authorities now will be able to station nurses at the entrance, checking for signs of drug and alcohol use or other problems. This medical check now is one of the last steps in the intake process, officials said.

Briseno said he is also considering approving a plan to authorize nurses to take blood samples from the juveniles as they enter the facility, rather than having to wait for authorization from the parents.

The judge acknowledged that this would be “a minor intrusion” for juveniles, but he said this would be outweighed by the gains in public health that could be made by testing for AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases.

Tom Wright, the director of the Juvenile Hall, said that the county will still need hundreds of additional beds for young offenders in coming years or risk putting more serious offenders out on the streets.

But he said the new 60-bed intake center offers a promising short-term solution, allowing authorities to provide added security for high-risk offenders. “It’s going to make life a whole lot easier. It’s going to make this place safer and more secure,” Wright said.

New Juvenile Justice Center

Name: The Betty Lou Lamoreaux Juvenile Justice Center, named for a retired Superior Court judge who campaigned vigorously through the 1980s for better facilities and programs for abused children and juvenile offenders.

Location: 341 The City Drive in Orange, in the same complex as the Theo Lacy Branch Jail and the Orangewood Children’s Home.

Cost: $84 million, including two parking structures.

Size: Seven stories high, with 238,800 square feet.

Facilities: Includes 15 juvenile justice courtrooms, 13 family law and probate courtrooms, and a 60-bed intake and reception center for young offenders. Two parking structures, with more than 2,000 spaces, have been built.

Source: Orange County Juvenile Court