Supervisors to Consider Youth Detention Center
Plans for a new juvenile detention center could move forward today when supervisors vote on a contract with a project management firm.
Supervisors Kathy Long and Judy Mikels, who both sit on a steering committee overseeing the project, will ask the board to approve a $2.19-million contract with the Sacramento-based Sverdrup CRSS.
The board will also will vote on a proposal to include a juvenile courthouse in the design of the complex, even though the county doesn’t yet have the $10 million necessary for that part of the project.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we can find the funding, because we’d really like to do it all at once,” said project administrator Joan Splinter. “But even if we don’t have funding, it’s more cost-effective to design the entire thing now.”
In May, the County received a $40.5-million grant to build the juvenile detention center, which will hold up to 420 offenders, more than twice the number currently housed in four separate facilities. The center will replace Ventura County’s aging and overcrowded facilities and will enable county officials to provide more substance-abuse and mental-health counseling.
The youth detention center is designed to be part of a larger juvenile justice complex, which would include six courtrooms and court-related offices.
The county agreed to contribute $23 million to the jail but is looking for an additional $10 million in state and federal funding for the courthouse.
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