A CASE FOR A NEW JUVENILE HALL FOR YOLO COUNTY
By Dave Rosenberg
Yolo County Supervisor, District Four
Yolo County’s Juvenile Hall, located at 238 West Beamer Street in Woodland, was built in 1976 as a maximum security facility, currently with a rated capacity of 30 minors. It’s old, out-of-date and it’s too small for the needs of this County.
The California Board of Corrections considers that the useful life of a correctional facility is approximately 30 years. By that standard, Yolo County’s current Hall, built in 1976, is on its last 7 years of useful life as a physical facility. It’s capacity of 30 has already been exceeded.
In 1996-97, the Average Daily Population at the Hall was 27.29. In 1997-98, it has jumped up 23.6% to an Average Daily Population of 33.74. The Hall was over capacity 286 days in 1997-98.
This overcrowding is wrong. And it may be a potential powderkeg. In February of 1994, before a 10-room addition and remodeling began, a mass escape occurred from the Hall which resulted in serious staff injury and the escape of 9 dangerous youthful offenders. At least 3 of these youth had been found unfit for Juvenile Court and were being tried as adults for capital crimes.
Yolo County currently has a youth population (ages 10-17) of about 20,000. Regrettably, a few of these children will engage in delinquent acts and crimes. They need to be housed in an appropriate, safe and secure juvenile detention facility, for their own sake, and for the sake of the community.
Yolo County needs to seriously begin the process of investing in the next generation Juvenile Hall: A cost-effective Hall of substantially increased capacity for the needs of this County over the next 20-40 years. The new Hall should have both maximum and minimum security beds to accommodate all the needs of our justice system.
The current Hall is also in the wrong location. When it was built in 1976, it was in a relatively undeveloped area of Woodland. Today, the general character of the neighborhood is primarily residential. The Hall is also isolated from other law and justice agencies, has no resident medical service staff, nor food service staff, nor backup security staff. When the Hall was designed in the 1970's, the type of youth detained were primarily minor property offenders and runaways. Today, we deal with a different challenge: violent and serious offenders. Simply put, the Hall is inefficient in design and is outmoded.
As Co-Chair of the Yolo County Criminal Justice Cabinet and as Chair of the Justice Facilities Committee, I have given a great deal of thought and invested a considerable amount of time in planning over the last year into the need for a new Juvenile Hall in Yolo County.
In my opinion, the ideal location would be near the current County Jail, so that food and medical services could be consolidated. A new facility must be large enough to accommodate Yolo County’s needs, not only for today, but for the next 20 to 40 years. A new Hall must be well designed so that the staff and public are safe and so that supervision can be state-of-the-art, efficient and cost effective. Ultimately, I believe a new Yolo County Juvenile Hall will require attention by all of Yolo County’s residents through our support of a bond measure which will help to fund a new Juvenile Hall.