Plans are in place to convert a county-run juvenile detention center in Orange into a “corrections campus,” meant to better support detained youth and those transitioning out of custody.

The new facility will include 68 beds for a remodeled detention center and add a 60-bed independent living complex for youth transitioning out of the center – something new for the county. The new programs will connect the juveniles with mental health, education and vocational resources, officials said.

In response to a decreasing number of youth in custody, the county of Orange in 2021 decided to turn an existing juvenile detention center in Santa Ana into a reentry program for adults, designed to keep those released from jail from ending up on the streets, leaving the county with its one remaining juvenile hall in Orange.

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The OC Board of Supervisors recently approved an up to $109 million contract for the design and construction of the new campus at that Orange location, which is meant to also provide resources that set up juveniles for more success when they are released. The campus will offer behavioral health services, a culinary program and other vocational programs.

Funding for the project comes from money set aside from previous county budgets, officials said.

Second District Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said the positive impact of the facility will outweighs its cost. He said he is especially grateful to see elements and opportunities that will “help people become whole again” and transition well.

“We don’t want people to be released and then to re-offend or recidivism rates to start increasing. The idea here is when somebody leaves that they go into society, they go into the community, as a productive member of our community,” he said.

The transition center “is going to satisfy many needs of our youth in Orange County,” Daniel Hernandez, the county’s chief probation officer, said.

“This new facility will be research infused and incorporate practices that are really going to make us and our county safer as youth that are housed with us for long periods of time will actually be released back home less likely to recommit crimes,” he said.

The project is designed to “nurture” the youth as they serve their sentences, as well as before they re-enter society.

“This new transitional age youth housing facility will be out-of-custody, transitional housing for youth who have been with us for a long time and maybe still need a safe place to transition so they don’t have to go back to potentially a high-risk environment back home and and potentially fall back into their old ways,” he said.

Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley said she is most excited for that transitional housing.

“I have learned that you can’t pick your parents and sometimes you go back into an environment that is not healthy for the progress that you’ve made elsewhere,” she said. “So having an option for independent living is going to allow them to continue on the progress of the good growth that they’ve made toward work, school, their own mental health and wellness.”

The key is to reduce the recidivism, she said. “We don’t want to see juveniles coming back into juvenile hall. We want those numbers to continue to reduce.”