Violence Rise Prompts the Expansion of Juvenile Hall

County officials are preparing the final piece of funding for an expansion of the juvenile hall in Sylmar that will make it the largest in the nation.

The $26.6-million project, to be completed next year, is needed to house a growing number of violent juvenile offenders, according to law enforcement officials.

The extra 160 beds could be filled immediately upon completion, county probation department officials say, as the juvenile justice system strains under the weight of increased youth crime.

It’s not just that juvenile crime is on the rise, officials said. There are more violent offenders, making the job of jailers more difficult.

For example, 180 of the 2,050 juveniles in county custody are awaiting trial or sentencing as adults--a situation that leads them to be more prone to violence or to have discipline problems, county officials said. The county’s other two juvenile detention facilities are downtown and in Downey.

Additionally, the average adult trial lasts longer than juvenile trials. The county’s juvenile halls temporarily house youths awaiting trial or sentencing.

If convicted, juveniles are typically sent to a county probation camp. For more serious crimes or a pattern of illegal behavior, youths are sent to the California Youth Authority--the state’s prison system for children.

“We recognize that we have a high number of high security juveniles who we cannot handle,” said Chief Probation Officer Barry J. Nidorf, responsible for supervising youthful offenders in the county, including those in juvenile halls.

“Because there are so many [youths] coming through who are being charged as adults, it makes them a little more desperate [to escape]. Juvenile halls were not originally built to house people like this,” Nidorf said.

Indeed, the current crop of youthful offenders influenced the design of the new $26.6-million wing, which will include several high-tech security features now found in the newest adult prisons--including video and audio monitoring of inmates in their cells.

“Kids today are a lot more sophisticated than ones from the past,” said Ed Anhalt, superintendent of San Fernando Valley Juvenile Hall.

“We get about 25% of the kids here due to [committing] violent crime, and those types of kids are high-risk kids pending some pretty horrendous charges. Before, we got a lot of property crimes and drug offenses.”

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The nationwide increase in youth violence has also been evident in Los Angeles County during the past decade.

From 1985 to 1994, according to probation department statistics, the number of homicides committed by juveniles in the county rose 60%, while the rate of all violent crimes among juveniles soared 78%.

During that same period, the number of violent crimes committed by 12 and 13-year-olds in the county increased 75%.

Finally, the average daily population at San Fernando Valley Juvenile Hall has risen from 508 in 1993 to 668 during the first three months of this year, according to probation department figures.

The facility, built in 1965 and reopened in 1975 following repairs caused by the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, has a capacity of only 453 beds.

To help manage overcrowding, some children sleep in the facility’s day room and others sleep in bunk beds.

Construction on the new wing started in February 1995 and is expected to be completed in February 1997. In addition to 160 new beds, there will be a 4,000-square-foot visiting center, a 288-space parking structure, an improved heating and cooling system, a remodeled lobby and security enhancements, according to Anhalt.

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While acknowledging that overcrowding at all three juvenile halls has made the Sylmar expansion necessary, Nidorf said he has mixed feelings about the new construction because it is a sign of the public’s focus away from preventive measures and toward punitive ones.

“Clearly, the institutions are crowded, so we need more of them,” he said. “But building [lockups] has become a national as well as local emphasis.”

As early as Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors could consider a proposed $8.5-million bond issue to cover the last funding needed for the expansion. About $17.5 million of the $26.6-million cost is being paid for by funds from voter-approved Proposition 86.

Since last year’s county budget crisis, the sale of bonds as a method of finance by the county has led to criticism by credit rating agencies.

The strategy--common among local governments, particularly since the approval of Proposition 13--involves the sale of bonds with the understanding that future revenue [which is never guaranteed] will cover the debt.

Maureen Siecott, director of public finance for the county’s treasurer/tax collector, said the juvenile hall expansion was important enough to warrant selling bonds.

“The other option,” she said, “would be to turn juveniles loose on the street.”