The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) While the County Correctional Capital Expenditure Bond Act of 1986 and the County Correctional Facility Capital Expenditure and Youth Facility Bond Act of 1988 have provided ninety million dollars ($90,000,000) for county juvenile facilities for remodeling to help ensure health and safety requirements, many problems remain.
(b) Numerous county juvenile facilities throughout California are dilapidated and overcrowded and do not meet standards. Over 40 percent or 4,335 facility beds are in need of renovation, reconstruction, construction, and deferred maintenance.
(c) Capital improvements are necessary to protect the life and safety of the persons confined or employed in juvenile facilities and to upgrade the health and sanitary conditions of those facilities.
(d) Over two hundred twenty million dollars ($220,000,000) is needed to remodel, upgrade, or replace 4,335 beds by the year 2000.
(e) Due to fiscal constraints associated with the loss of local property tax revenues, counties are unable to finance the construction of adequate juvenile facilities.
(f) Local juvenile facilities are operating over capacity or must implement emergency release procedures, and the population of these facilities is still increasing. It is essential to the public safety that construction proceed as expeditiously as possible to relieve overcrowding and to maintain public safety and security.
(g) County juvenile facilities are threatened with closure or the imposition of court ordered sanctions if health and safety deficiencies are not corrected immediately.
(Added by Stats. 1998, Ch. 499, Sec. 1. Effective September 15, 1998.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018