On the outside, the new Jackson County Juvenile Service Center is an attractive brick building, but inside it offers a spare steel and concrete home for young lawbreakers.

"It isn’t a kindergarten we’re building over there," said Dave Kanner, deputy county administrator. "It’s pretty stark."

The building, scheduled for completion in September, features a chain-link motif in its brick facade and has lots of hard surfaces inside to endure the test of time and wills.

Located on 10th Street between King and Laurel streets in Medford, the $16.5 million project is running about three weeks behind schedule, said Kanner. When workers discovered groundwater at shallower levels than predicted, it stalled the 16-month construction project for about a week.

"It’s a very complex building on a very tight schedule," he said.

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Guards can patrol the facility remotely from a command center with 82 cameras that cover almost every square inch of the building.

Electronic steel doors and elevators can be operated from a touch-screen computer to control the movement of inmates.

A 280-foot concrete-walled tunnel runs under 10th Street and will connect to another tunnel running between the county jail and the Justice Building, which houses courtrooms. The tunnel will be used to transport food and laundry and will conceal the identity of inmates.

Cell walls and ceilings are lined with plate steel, and the bed is a concrete slab that will have a three-inch-thick cushion on top.

Designers originally considered stainless steel beds. But Steve Ballard, project manager for the T. Gerding Construction Co. of Corvallis, said the idea was abandoned when it was realized inmates might jump off the toilet onto the bed, eventually crumpling it.

For particularly troubled youths, there will be a padded cell.

Bulletproof glass protects judges in their street-front offices and bulletproof paneling has been installed in their benches.

Even the plumbing system is designed to be foolproof.

"It’s engineered so you just can’t vandalize the system," said Travis Argue, a plumber with JH Kelly of Longview, Wash.

The pressurized sewage system is so complicated it has a built-in grinder in case inmates try to flush a blanket or shoe down the toilet. If the grinder can’t handle the object, Argue said, it will automatically reverse direction to unjam itself.

Toilets will only need a half-gallon of water to flush instead of the normal gallon and a half because the system is under tremendous pressure.

Kanner said the sewage grinding system was a mandatory expense.

"It’s an ongoing problem at the (county) jail where the inmates stuff sheets and clothes and jam up the whole system," he said. "Then you get problems with raw sewage all over the place."

The building is designed to last at least 30 years, with the potential to expand from 40 beds to 80.

Other than providing a home for juveniles, the center will feature a courtroom and a shelter area for 16 youths who haven’t broken the law but need a place to stay. Shelter youths will get a real bed to sleep on.

Joe Ferguson, detention center manager, said the center will work with the Medford School District to offer separate classes for shelter youths and inmates.

It will also have a hearing room, classroom space, intake area and 24 offices for probation and assessment.

The new center will replace the 1950s-era juvenile detention hall at the South Gateway Shopping Center, which has 20 detention and 16 shelter beds.

After construction is completed, furniture, computers and other equipment will be brought in for a projected Oct. 4 opening date.

Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail dmann@mailtribune.com

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