Juvy: Home away from home?

Fresno County isn't the only region opening a new juvenile hall facility. San Mateo County's a taking softer, gentler approach to juvenile offenders.

"At the county's new $148 million youth services complex, the premise is treatment, not punishment, and the message is delivered in the very walls: soothing pastels to calm testy moods, skylights letting in swaths of sunlight and open space for stretching growing muscles," says a story in the San Jose Mercury News. "Unlike other California counties that are greatly expanding their juvenile halls, San Mateo added only a few lockup beds and instead created homier settings for girls, substance abusers and the mentally ill. The juvenile hall is surrounded by a network of services for young people in trouble, from run-amok kids who exhaust their parents to teens who kill. The complex, whose first phase opens in September, is already eliciting praise from advocates and justice officials statewide."