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Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker, representing District 3 on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, voted in support of rebuilding Alameda County's juvenile hall (currently in San Leandro) on county-owned land in Dublin and increasing its capacity to 420 beds. An earlier plan calling for an even larger facility touched off months of youth and community protest last summer. |
Lai-Bitker on her support of the new, larger facility:
"The number of beds at our juvenile hall now is 299. But we've had so many problems in the past few years in terms of overcrowding, and that is not good for the kids. I feel it is important that we make a prudent decision. Our county population is growing, and so we should have a juvenile hall that will meet the needs in the next 40, 50 years. But in the meantime, we are not saying, we give up and we’re not working better in terms of providing alternatives.
"We are selecting a group of experts to look at the whole spectrum of services in terms of dealing with juveniles: how in the first place we can provide services that prevent kids from ending up in juvenile hall. And when kids are in juvenile hall, what are we doing with them? And in the back end of the system, what other places are available for youth to go? We do not have enough places that can take them.
"I know that the distance [to the proposed juvenile hall site in Dublin] has been a concern. So we are addressing that by formulating a plan that meets the transportation needs [of parents or family members of youth in custody.] We are looking at coupons or vouchers for AC [Alameda-Contra Costa] Transit, and we may run a shuttle from the hall to the BART station -- and we continue to get more community input as well."
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