The Nevada County Grand Jury recommends closing the Juvenile Hall, with the Board of Supervisors finding more cost-effective uses. In its latest report, the grand jury does praise the facility as secure and controlled and offering good educational and work opportunities. But it wonders if it’s worth the cost. It says the county receives 90-dollars a day in reimbursement for out-of-county detainees, but it says the average cost is actually 377 dollars and the number of local offenders has been declining. It also says Tuolomne County, which it says is the primary source of out-of-county detainees, will soon be part of a new facility with Calaveras and Amador Counties. But Nevada County Chief Probation Officer Mike Ertola says there are no plans to close the juvenile hall and may soon expand the types of detainees it houses, if proposed legislation becomes law…

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Nevada County recently closed half of the facility, which, the report acknowledges, has already achieved the biggest cost reduction. But the Grand Jury says it’s still costing over 3-million dollars a year. Ertola says this is not just an economic issue…

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The report says courts and probation officers increasingly are using alternatives to juvenile incarceration, a trend that substantially has decreased the numbers in facilities like the one in Nevada County.