County to Seek Funds for Juvenile Hall Center

Although a site has yet to be selected, Ventura County supervisors agreed Tuesday to apply for $40.5 million in state grants to build a new juvenile justice detention center.

Submission of the grant application to the state Board of Corrections means the county has agreed to pay $25 million of the project’s estimated $65-million cost. It also pledges to staff the facility when completed, which could require hiring up to 98 additional probation officers by 2010.

Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren, who presides over Juvenile Court, told supervisors a new center is desperately needed.

“We’re 30 years behind,” Perren said. “Each day I make decisions on the placement for children, decisions based on inadequate resources. If I could beg you, I would beg you. What we have is wrong.”

Probation officials will formally submit their grant application next Wednesday, with a presentation to state corrections representatives scheduled for early April.

If the state approves the grant application, the county would receive the money this fall and be required to build the center within three years.

The biggest hurdle probation officials face is pinning down a site for the detention center. Many city officials would prefer to avoid such a facility because of safety and political concerns.

But the county, which has already ruled out several sites, has identified three potential alternatives--all centrally located and in industrial areas. Probation officials would not identify the possibilities, but said they will have a site by May 20.

Supervisor Kathy Long, who sits on the state Board of Corrections steering committee, said the county may hurt its chances for securing the grant money if it has not selected a site by April.

Although acknowledging that competition will be tough, Chief Probation Officer Cal Remington said he believes other counties have also not selected building sites.

“I’m optimistic, but realistic to know that it’s not in the bag,” Remington said.

Another obstacle the county has to overcome is coming up with its share of construction costs--$25.5 million.

Initial funding will come from local bonds, but the county may also use money it expects to collect later from a tobacco settlement, Long said. The county stands to gain $233 million from a national tobacco settlement that was designed to reimburse counties for money they have spent to treat patients with smoking-related illnesses.

Already, the county has already contributed $9 million to pay for site evaluation, an environmental impact study and architectural and engineering plans.

The county’s Juvenile Hall is overcrowded and antiquated, according to a 1997 report by the state Board of Corrections. The report found that the facility was “inadequate from a physical standpoint and in need of replacement.”

Built nearly 60 years ago, Juvenile Hall has 84 beds, but houses 109 youths on an average day. The most youths in the hall on a single day was 132.

Three other facilities house juvenile offenders throughout the county, but there are only 173 beds total. And population estimates indicate the number of Ventura County’s youthful offenders will increase by as much as 75% by 2020.

Probation officials say the overcrowding leads to frequent fights among gang-involved offenders and limits the substance-abuse and mental-health programs the county can offer.

“Rather than just warehouse these kids, we’d like to do more programming. And with the antiquated facilities we have, we really can’t do that,” Chief Deputy Probation Officer Karen Staples said. “This facility is not only needed because we need more beds, but also because the beds we have are old and antiquated.”

Eventually, the juvenile justice center would bring together all of the branches of the scattered juvenile justice system into one central complex. It would hold up to 420 offenders--240 at the detention facility and 180 at two separate camps. The complex would also house six juvenile courtrooms, along with all of the court-related agencies, including the district attorney, public defender and probation.

Although the grant only applies to the detention center, county officials hope to continue the project incrementally. The entire center, including the courts and county offices, is expected to cost more than $100 million.

“This is the first step,” Long said. “It puts us on the road toward this long-term vision to build the juvenile justice center.”

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, supervisors approved a report that calls for stiffer penalties for repeat juvenile criminals, creation of a countywide gang-tracking system and stricter parent accountability. The report was written in response to the Ventura County Grand Jury’s recommendations on reducing gang violence.

The gang-tracking system, which would include probation information on juvenile offenders, is expected to be underway by May 2000.