Judge Launches Namesake Juvenile Court

When former Juvenile Court Judge Steven Z. Perren traveled to Sacramento five years ago to ask for $40 million in state funding to help pay for a new juvenile justice complex in Ventura County, he wasn’t convinced he would win his case.

On Friday, Perren joined county officials at a ceremonial groundbreaking for a new courthouse at the El Rio site where the sprawling complex is under construction. It represents the final step in a long-awaited project that they hope will transform the county’s juvenile justice system.

“Chutzpah is the only word that comes to mind,” Perren said, marveling at the project that will bear his name.

The Justice Steven Z. Perren Juvenile Justice Complex is intended as a one-stop center to replace a rundown and severely overcrowded juvenile hall. It will contain courtrooms, classrooms and a 420-bed detention facility and will offer counseling services. Perren, who served on Juvenile Court for five years, is now a state Court of Appeal justice.

“We had facilities in which you wouldn’t want to put the most hardened adults,” said Perren, a key player behind the project. “You can’t expect to improve the lives of kids when you put them in a place that says we don’t care.”

Construction of the courthouse, scheduled to open in July 2004, is expected to begin next week. When completed, the 56,000-square-foot facility will have six courtrooms.

The adjoining detention center will allow authorities to avoid sending youthful offenders to neighboring counties for treatment, said Cal Remington, the county’s chief probation officer. About 100 juveniles are currently being sent out of the county and approximately 100 others are being electronically monitored.

Some of those should be in a detention facility, Remington said, but with 210 wards of the county’s juvenile system, there is not enough room to house and treat everyone.

The new detention facility will help alleviate that problem. It will include a 240-bed juvenile hall that will house cell pods attached to classrooms, common areas and small recreation yards. The remaining 180 beds will be for juveniles with other needs, officials said.

While incarcerated, wards will be able to receive mental health and substance abuse counseling.

The facility will retain the name of the current one, the Clifton Tatum Center, after a probation officer from Oxnard admired by many juvenile advocates.

The juvenile justice complex is being funded in part by a $40.5-million grant awarded by the state Department of Corrections, with the courts and county picking up the remaining costs of the $65-million project.

“Now the county of Ventura is poised to move into a new era,” Perren told the politicians and law enforcement officers in attendance at Friday’s ceremony. “This is really just about the kids and, in case any of you wonder, oh, God, how I do miss those kids.”