Calif. to Convert Juvenile Facility to House Adults

CHINO, Calif. — Corrections officials will house adult inmates at the Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility as part of a $110 million plan to convert the state’s largest juvenile detention facility, which is slated for closure next year.
The plan will create more than 1,800 beds for adult inmates, including almost 900 mental health treatment beds, according to a long-range plan recently released by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The redevelopment includes construction of a new 940-bed reception center at the nearby California Institution for Men, which was badly damaged during inmate riots earlier this year, and a 65-bed expansion of mental health and psychiatric facilities at a neighboring women’s prison.

The former youth facility will serve as a reception center for low- to medium-security level adult offenders until 2013, when the new facility is scheduled to be fully operational.