Board to Name Youth Justice Complex for Judge

Justice Steven Z. Perren spent the past decade making passionate speeches to colleagues, county leaders and state officials about the need for more money and the effort toward rehabilitating juvenile delinquents.

The former Ventura County Juvenile Court judge, now on the state appellate court, is credited by many as a key player behind the county’s soon-to-be-built juvenile justice complex.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors plans to reward him for his efforts. The five-member board is expected to approve a request by Supervisors Judy Mikels and Kathy Long to name the complex after him.

At Perren’s urging, the center will bring the detention center and juvenile courtrooms together with classrooms, where troubled youths can receive counseling and vocational training.

“It just seemed so appropriate,” Mikels said Friday. “It was his idea to do a complex. He spends hours of personal time advocating for the youth of the county. If it hadn’t been for Steve, we probably never would have gotten the amount of money we did and we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing.”

Perren, 58, said he feels proud but a little embarrassed by the credit being bestowed upon him.

“It feels odd and not entirely comfortable, but it’s an honor,” he said. “It represents my life’s work.”

The first phase of the center is scheduled to open by May 2003.

The completed $65-million facility would replace the overcrowded and rundown juvenile hall and bring courtrooms, detention wards, classrooms, counseling services and administrative offices to one complex.

The new detention headquarters would carry over the name of the current one, the Clifton Tatum Center, under a provision supervisors also will consider Tuesday.

Tatum, now deceased, was a probation officer from Oxnard admired by many juvenile advocates, said Supervisor John Flynn, who represents the Oxnard area.

The new detention center could hold up to 420 offenders, more than twice the county’s current capacity. Mikels said other buildings in the complex will be named for additional honorees in the coming months.

Perren’s role as an advocate for juveniles dates to the early 1990s. He started local teen court and juvenile drug court programs. A serious push for a new juvenile center began in 1995.

In 1999, Perren and a team of county officials traveled to Sacramento to compete for $40.5 million in state money. The team argued its case to corrections officials in a competitive process against dozens of other counties.

Long said Friday she and Mikels weren’t sure Perren would agree to having the complex dedicated in his name.

“When Judy and I called him and asked him if it would be OK with him, he’s such a humble man, it took him a week to get back to us,” she said.

Perren said he prefers to concentrate on the work still ahead.

“I’d like to think my legacy is in the kids I’ve served, not the bricks and mortar,” Perren said. “But bricks and mortar are important in that they enable us to serve those kids, something we can’t do at present.”