Public Safety

Public Gets Glimpse Inside Juvenile Hall

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More than 3,000 children, teenagers and adults lined up Saturday to get a look inside Juvenile Hall in Kearny Mesa. 

Trevor Gurski, 12, of Valley Center came to the hall on a field trip with 42 other students, and said he was surprised to hear that the kids there have to share underwear and they are under constant supervision even in the bathroom. 

“I would never want to go there. I think all kids, all schools, should have to come here as a field trip,” Gurski said. “The bathrooms: I couldn’t deal with that.”

Correctional counselor Nancy Clever, who works at Juvenile Hall, brought her two foster sons for the tour, so they could see where she works. She said they often discuss situations in which teenagers get in trouble and it ends up on the news. However, once the children come to Juvenile Hall, she can no longer discuss what happens to them with her sons. 

“I try to do a lot of teaching moments with them about how not to get in these situations,” Clever said. 

Isaiah, one of her sons, had a young friend who was taken there recently, but the friend told them that it was “not that bad” in there, she said. Clever wanted him to see for himself what the reality is inside Juvenile Hall. 

After taking the tour, Isaiah, 13, said he would tell his friends, “They don’t want to do anything bad to get here because they might think it’s funny what they did to get here, but once they get here … it’s not good.”

San Diego County Probation Chief Mack Jenkins said, “Our focus is trying to change the behavior of kids not just lock them up in a room and that’s what we want the public to see.”