Riverside County wants to start over at a place where many a wayward youth started over.
County officials plan to spend up to $32.9 million – $24.69 million coming from Sacramento – to tear down and rebuild the Van Horn Youth Treatment and Education Center, a minimum-security facility geared toward low-level juvenile offenders who need help getting back on track.
The 10-acre complex on County Farm Road in Riverside has been closed for two years due to a decline in inmates and the need to prepare for the upgrade. The existing 24,000-square-foot, 44-bed complex will be replaced by a 60,000-square-foot, 106-bed facility.
Officials looked at renovating the center. But it was more cost effective to build something new, said Jason Bailey, a division center at the county probation department, which oversees juvenile detention services.
The new center will have secured doors and a confined perimeter. But the center’s focus is treatment, not punishment, for teenagers classified as less dangerous than their peers locked up in juvenile hall.
RIVERSIDE COUNTY: Juvenile detention facility to be reborn
Last edited {1}
Comments (0)