NCJ Number
208197
Editor(s)
Ying-sun Ho,
C. Lenore Anderson
Date Published
April 2002
Length
82 pages
Annotation
This report examines Alameda County, California’s juvenile justice crisis and the county’s proposed solution to expand and relocate its juvenile detention facility.
Abstract
The main argument of the report is that the county’s plans to expand and relocate the juvenile detention facility would have disastrous effects on the county and on youth and would do nothing to reduce juvenile delinquency and increase public safety. The county’s current juvenile detention center has 299 beds and is located in San Leandro, CA, where most of its clientele live. The proposed facility would hold 420 beds and would be moved to remote Dublin to be adjacent to the county’s adult jail. Alameda County’s current ratio of beds to resident youth (detention rate) is already one of the highest in the country and juvenile detention over-crowding is generally not a problem. The main problem with the current detention center is its dilapidated structure. The planned expanded facility would be one of the largest in the country relative to the size of the local juvenile population. The authors charge that the county has decided to build the new facility based on a methodologically flawed study; based on an incomplete understanding of the role of the current juvenile detention center in the county’s juvenile justice center; and with scant attention to the fact that the new detention center will do nothing to reduce juvenile delinquency and increase public safety in Alameda County. While the county focuses on a lack of apparent bed space, critics hold that the issue at hand concerns the ineffective policies and practices of Alameda County’s juvenile justice system, which include a lack of community programs, excessive bureaucracy, and the inappropriate confinement of youth. In addition to making necessary systematic changes in its juvenile justice system, it is recommended that Alameda County rebuild its new facility in a location that is easily accessible to detained youth and their families. Appendixes, tables, endnotes