Committee forwards ordinance to close juvenile hall and reinvest funds in community alternatives

The Government Audit & Oversight Committee on May 16 recommended that the full Board of Supervisors consider an ordinance that would require the city to close the Juvenile Justice Center (Juvenile Hall) at 375 Woodside by Dec. 31, 2021, expand community-based alternatives and create a working group and a youth-justice reinvestment fund.

Sponsor Supervisor Shimon Walton, who introduced the measure, said the goal is to replace institutional detention with "a rehabilitative, non-institutional place of detention" for the small minority of youth that state law requires to remain confined and to redirect funds into community programs, job training and mental-health services. "We would never put a system in place that is worse than our current juvenile hall," Walton said, describing the proposal as an effort to invest in individualized plans, education and…