A youth detention facility for girls could soon be coming to Alameda County.

That's according to a Probation Department official, who said Tuesday that his agency will seek county and state money to build a girls' detention camp in the style of San Leandro's Camp Sweeney for boys.

Deputy Chief Bill Fenton said the department will ask the Board of Supervisors at an upcoming meeting to approve a needs assessment — the first official step toward building such a facility.

Fenton said the plan is in its infancy, noting that the department hasn't yet proposed a site. He said the county has a unique opportunity to tap into a pot of $100 million the state has allocated for the construction of juvenile facilities.

He added that the Probation Department will go back to the board in about three months seeking authorization for an official request to apply for state funds.

If approved, the state would foot 75 percent of the camp's construction cost. Fenton said the department will likely seek a 30-bed facility that would probably cost $20 million to $40 million.

"From a (Department of) Probation standpoint, it's not only important, it's an opportunity that doesn't come along very often," Fenton said.

Detention camps are geared toward high-risk juveniles who have been adjudicated — the juvenile equivalent of a criminal conviction — of serious crimes, usually felonies. Camps vary greatly in emphasis and goals,

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Fenton said, noting that some are more punitive than others.

Such detention camps gained national media exposure after the 2006 release of "Gridiron Gang," a feel-good movie about the football team at Malibu's Camp Kilpatrick.

Most of the more than 60 juvenile detention camps statewide are for boys.

Fenton cites a 10-year spike in female juvenile detention among the department's most compelling arguments for building a girls' camp, noting that the percentage of girls has nearly doubled to almost 20 percent of the county's detained juvenile population.

Camps are typically a last chance for many juveniles before they're sent to state facilities. The camps are geared toward rehabilitation and offer counseling, education and vocational training, Fenton said.

"We need to get some gender-responsive programming for girls in the county because we're getting higher numbers of girls committing crimes," he said.

Fenton said the cost of not investing in the rehabilitation of troubled juveniles would be exponentially greater.

"As you go up the ladder, from a camp setting to county (jail) to the state and federal (prisons), each one costs more," Fenton said. "Long-term, you've got safety and security benefits to the county and an outcome that is much more cost-effective."

Gideon Rubin can be reached at 510-293-2469 or grubin@bayareanewsgroup.com.