Approach on juvenile hall needs improvement
Oakland Tribune, Monday, October 15, 2001

ALAMEDA County's on-and-off plan to build a large juvenile hall in Dublin is apparently on again. But don't blink. The lobbying, political and possible legal action surrounding this controversial issue means it's not over.

More precisely, Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker, the swing vote on the five-person Board of Supervisors in this sensitive political, economic and sociological dance, changed her mind again last Tuesday and returned to her original position of supporting one site, not two.

Two weeks earlier, she sent parties in this many-headed dispute into a tizzy by switching sides and aligning herself with with Supervisors Keith Carson and Nate Miley, and other forces leaning toward two smaller facilites at far ends of the county and favoring alternatives to detention.

Last Tuesday, she changed her mind again, realigning with Supervisors Gail Steele and Scott Haggerty, who've been firmly on the side of one large facility -- called the "superjail" by young activists opposing the plan -- on land the county owns in Dublin.

The initial proposal of 540 beds has been cut to 450 and now a 420-bed, $176 million complex that includes a juvenile hall, juvenile court, probation offices and public defenders office -- with space to expand if needed.

In quest of federal money to lower the direct cost of a new juvenile hall, supervisors took what they thought was the route of least resistance by deciding to build on land they already owned. They ended up getting $33.2 million through the state for a facility of at least 330 beds.

Theoretically, that should have made construction cheaper and the politics easier. While the former appears to be true -- building two facilities would cost an additional $48 million -- the political benefit hasn't materialized.

Over the past few months, young activists forced supervisors to walk out of one meeting and found allies among Dublin citizens and homeowners who don't want a juvenile detention facility built anywhere near where they live or their children go to school.

They say real estate agents told them it will depreciate home values 10 percent, a $50 million loss for homeowners.

It didn't help that the county failed to inform or consult Dublin municipal officials and residents of their intention, and didn't hold a public forum on the issue in Dublin until this month. That was a major politial faux pas.

What the board has is an imperfect solution. Building a juvenile facility on the land it owns makes economic, but perhaps not political and sociological, sense.

Dublin is not a central location. Records show most teen-agers detained at the dilapidated 299-bed facility in San Leandro come from the northwestern part of the county in and around Oakland. Locating the county's only facility in Dublin puts troubled teens in the southeast corner, almost the farthest point possible from their homes and families, making it harder to retain links with parents and community.

The county countered initial concerns by offering to provide transportation for families that need it, but hasn't said how much that will cost. Youth advocates seeking less detention, smaller facilities and more community based alternatives joined the fray, followed by the Dublin homeowners.

Upset by last week's flip-flop, advocates for alternative programs and Dublin homeowners vow they will take their objections to the California Board of Corrections in Sacramento on Nov. 15.

If that doesn't change things, and it's unlikely to, Dublin residents have said they have "the money, a lot of will, a lot of very intelligent people with a lot of connections" and will take the fight to court. That could bog construction down beyond the Sept. 2005 completion date specified for the $33.2 million grant.

If so, the county could lose federal funds, forcing it to siphon money away from other programs to complete juvenile hall.

While we agree on the need for more intervention and prevention programs for juveniles, the county made what it deemed the best economic choice. It has an opportunity to locate most services and agencies for troubled juveniles in one place. That's good news.

The county fell flat on its face, however, in community and public relations. It short-circuited or altogether ignored discussions with the city of Dublin, potential clients and neighbors who will be directly affected by a 420-bed facility. The result has been a PR disaster in which the county has created more enemies than allies.

The need for a new juvenile facility is clear. The one straddling the Hayward Fault in San Leandro is inadequate, outdated and dysfunctional.

But this is not the best way to go about it. A more inclusive, open process might have avoided some of these problems. It is a grassroots lesson in how not to treat the public.

Our Response:

Dear Editor:

Thank you for noting that our county's Board of Supervisors "Approach on juvenile hall needs improvement." Vote Health, an 18-year-old health activist group in Alameda County, agrees that the planned hall would be overbuilt and misplaced.

However, you left out an important, equally misguided aspect of the choice of Supervisors Lai-Bitker, Steele and Haggerty to build a "super jail" for youth. They would pour all of the yearly interest from a fund earmarked for capital improvements in the county to this jail. Vote Health believes some of these funds should be dedicated to rebuilding the Fairmont Hospital campus. This vital community health care facility will be shut down by the Department of Health Services within a few years because the multiple code violations cannot be updated in the aging, cramped buildings.

Fairmont is part of our county's health care safety net for uninsured and underinsured residents (numbering 140,000.) It served 50,000 outpatient visits and an equal number of inpatient days last year. Many tragedies will result from that number of health needs going unmet. The remaining services, including Highland Hospital, cannot absorb more than a fraction of those visits.

We urge all those concerned to contact the Board of Supervisors to downsize plans for the juvenile hall and commit the savings to health care. Alice Lai-Bitker is the Chair of the Board's Health Committee-come on, Alice, where are your priorities? Having more beds than are needed to lock up kids, or ensuring that the many thousands that need health care in South County have someplace to go?

Nancy M. Friedman, Chair

Vote Health

Cuts at East Bay Sutter Hospitals

Remember Vote Health's campaign to stop Sutter from monopolizing hospital beds in the East Bay? One of our fears about that takeover was Sutter's history of making promises to maintain services and then making brutal cutbacks after achieving dominance in a geographic area. That's just what looks likely to happen: Sutter's downsizing consultant has recommended eliminating most of the medical and cardiovascular surgery done at Alta Bates, focusing on oncology and obstetrics while Summit does the rest.

A Sutter administrator cited possible losses of up to $40 million as the cause of the cuts. Over 300 jobs must be eliminated and square footage pared down, at the same time Alta Bates has been pressing to expand into the neighborhood. Even if the ER is expanded, if this rearrangement happens, all emergency general surgery will be routed to Summit.

What is particularly ominous for Alameda County services is the plan to ax all 99 beds devoted to psychiatric care at Herrick within three years if Herrick fails to increase its revenue. This could mean even greater pressure on the psych beds at the County's John George Psychiatric Pavilion. In Alameda County, JGPP is the service provider for 99% of all acute psychiatric emergencies. The beds are always full, so patients often are parked in the small waiting room, with staff trying to stabilize often dangerous and disoriented patients. In addition, the Sheriff's Department is trying to gobble up 20 of the 80 beds at JGPP for inmates with psychiatric problems, and is hoping to get the Medical Center to pay for this care out of its budget, rather than it coming from the Sheriff's budget.

An Institute of Medicine study just released found that the increased cost of health insurance and a slower economy will likely boost the number of uninsured Americans in future years.

Surprise Vote by Board of Supervisors on 9/25, Reversed on 10/9

At the Capital Improvement Plan Hearings on September 25th, Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker seemed to change her priorities from building a "super jail" for youth to supporting a smaller facility that would leave funds for rebuilding Fairmont Hospital. Alas, her fragile alliance with Supervisors Miley and Carson at the hearing seemed to be smashed behind closed doors, and she returned two weeks later to vote with Supervisors Steele and Haggerty to construct a 420-bed juvenile hall. Was this truly a concern for children, or were there more political factors that swayed her vote? Here's how events unfolded:

The Emerald Fund hearing on September 25th ended with a surprise decision against the County spending all this year's capital improvement funds solely on a super jail to replace the current Juvenile Hall in San Leandro, as recommended by the County Administrator. Nate Miley, Keith Carson, and Alice Lai-Bitker, who wavered until the last moment, voted yes on Miley's motion for the County to:

• Examine building a smaller facility "of a size that has not been determined." (A bed total of 330 was mentioned.)
• Consider building two facilities, one in Dublin and the other near the current site in San Leandro, to better serve the north end of the county.
• Adopt more alternatives to incarceration for youth.
• Apply any savings from building a smaller facility to be put toward improvements to Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro.

This outcome seemed to be the result of a campaign waged by an impressive coalition. Vote Health members and SEIU 616, campaigning for a new Fairmont Hospital, joined forces with Books not Bars and the Youth Force Coalition, who are working for alternatives to incarcerating youth in the planned "super jail." An endorsement from the Central Labor Council helped in the battle to shift some capital funds towards rebuilding Fairmont.

Vote Health worked hard in the weeks prior to the meeting to collect signatures for our petition seeking funding for Fairmont. We presented 1,347 signatures to the Board, and sent in an additional 200, in addition to packing the Board's chambers with members of the coalition groups.

However, all that hard work was undone during the Supervisor's meeting of October 9th, when Alice Lai-Bitker called for clarification of Miley's motion and ended up swinging her vote back to Supervisors Steele and Haggerty's support of a 420-bed juvenile hall in Dublin. Our coalition has many objections to this, the most important being:

• It will put valuable resources into jail beds for youth, rather than alternative programs;
• It is well known that any number of beds available will be filled, rather than working to move youth out to rehabilitative resources;
• The majority of incarcerated youth are from poorer families in North County, who will have difficulty traveling to see children placed in Dublin;
• A hall this size will continue to need a large commitment of funding as long as it exists for staff, services, etc.;
• IT LEAVES NO MONEY FROM THE EMERALD CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT FUND FOR REBUILDING FAIRMONT HOSPITAL.

There was mention during the September hearing that the supervisors needed to develop a plan for Fairmont. We must continue to press for a commitment to not only a plan, but dedicated funding to see it through. Please let the supervisors know that you want this vital resource to continue to exist, and that WE INTEND TO WATCHDOG THIS ISSUE UNTIL THE FUTURE OF FAIRMONT IS ASSURED. You can find their email addresses and phone numbers on our website. Keep checking the site for further actions.

Go here to let the supervisors know that you want this vital resource to continue to exist.

Read about the reversed 9/25 vote. "Surprise Vote by Board of Supervisors is a Victory for our Coalition"