An armed holdup earlier this month unexpectedly sent two teenage suspects back home. Now, Colusa County authorities want to build a juvenile detention center to keep a closer watch on the youngest offenders.

The county's probation department made the case Tuesday for a juvenile hall, less than two weeks after law enforcement was forced to return to their parents 17- and 13-year-old boys suspected of robbing a Maxwell grocery store.

Steven K. Bordin, chief probation officer, promoted the plan not only as a time and money saver for law enforcement, but also as a way to keep as many delinquents as possible from becoming career criminals later.

"We had some pretty serious (suspects) we had to let go," Bordin told the Board of Supervisors in Colusa. "This highlights the fact that we've grown to the point where we need our own juvenile hall." Board members had no comment on the proposal during the meeting.

The county is one of nine in California lacking a place to hold its suspects younger than 18, according to William Harry Munyon, an architect whose Napa-based firm TRG Consulting is helping the county create a juvenile center plan. Agreements with the Yuba-Sutter and Glenn County detention halls allow Colusa to keep its offenders in custody there, but at the cost of fuel and lost time for law enforcement officers — and only when spare beds are open.

Sheriff's deputies arrested four Mid-Valley teens July 10, minutes after a holdup at Maxwell Stop & Shop Market. Two 18-year-olds were booked at the county jail, but the probation department could not find space within a 100-mile radius for the two younger suspects and placed them under their parents' supervision.

Bordin's plan, unveiled Tuesday, calls for the county to build a youth hall with at least 10 beds next to the county jail on Bridge Street, in Colusa's east side. The proposal also could increase capacity to 20 or more inmates if the county decides to lease space to the federal government to detain teens held for immigration violations.

The outline by probation officials and TRG is part of a proposal the county may send to the state Department of Corrections, which is offering about $100 million to help smaller counties build youth detention halls.

Bordin predicted Colusa County could seek between $1.5 million and $3 million when it applies for state funds in January, though no cost estimate for the center has been announced. Supervisors also would have to pass a resolution supporting the project.

Having a detention center within the county would do more than keep younger suspects in line, Munyon told supervisors. The oversight also would allow the county to give teenage offenders counseling and training to keep some of them out of the "revolving door" of state prisons, with their estimated 70 percent recidivism rate for parolees.

"Realistically, can you save all of them? No," he said. "But if you can save 50 percent of them, the (savings) in human life is wonderful."

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Howard Yune at 458-2121 or hyune@appealdemocrat.com.