April 14, 2011 | 9:48 AM | By

Alameda County to stop sending kids to state juvenile facilities

FILED UNDER: Corrections, Alameda County, Budget, David Muhammad, Division of Juvenile Justice, Juvenile Justice, Realignment

Chief Probation Officer David Muhammad

States like New York and California are making moves to shutter their state juvenile detention facilities–mostly because they’re incredibly costly, reports USA Today. In California, Governor Jerry Brown nixed his play to completely close the Division of Juvenile Justice (formerly the California Youth Authority) following backlash from the counties (who will absorb this population in their juvenile halls). But that doesn’t mean operations in the DJJ will continue as usual–and some believe that the state juvenile system is still destined for shutdown. As part of his revised “realignment” plan, Brown is giving counties an option: keep kids at the county level and get state money, or pay the state to lock up the most serious youth offenders.

Alameda County’s new Chief of Probation David Muhammad told reporter Martha Moore that kids from that county will be pulled from DJJ facilities:

Alameda County, where Oakland is located, will build a youth lockup to accommodate kids that would have gone to state youth prisons, says David Muhammad, the county’s head of probation. “A huge concern is, you close (the state agency) completely, fund the counties to supervise this population but only fund it for five years. What happens after that?”

Alameda County, with 63 kids in state lock-up, has the fifth highest number of kids in the DJJ system (Los Angeles, with 315, has the most).

Currently, the county operates a 299-bed juvenile hall and 80-bed camp. It’s unclear whether this new lockup would consist of part of the current structure, or if the county plans to build an entirely new facility.