San Diego County East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility

VITETTA, in association, was selected to provide architectural master planning, and full services architectural and interior design services for a new 175,000 sf, $37 million juvenile detention facility. Located on a rugged hillside in East Mesa, the juvenile facility is part of a larger master planned development of correctional facilities. Although visually separated from the adult facilities, the juvenile facility has more of a civic presence on the public entry side. Phase One of the master plan is comprised of 380 beds and a 20-bed administrative segregation unit. Each pod features single and double bunking on two levels; two classrooms, a laundry and nurse’s station. 

VITETTA, working closely with user groups from the county, designed each housing pod with direct supervision and with a unique layout and sightlines that allowed the project to be approved by the Board of Corrections to a higher staff to inmate ratio as the first facility in a state-wide pilot program.  The command center and local housing units utilize fully integrated touchscreen monitors for door control, intercom operations, officer down annunication and surveillance video.