Detention redemption: in one California county, progressive leaders and law-enforcement officials are transforming a troubled juvenile-justice system.(SPECIAL REPORT: JUVENILE JUSTICE)

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY'S JUVENILE hall sits on a pine- and oak-studded hillside across from a state park. It is a low-slung building made of concrete block with doors painted a bilious shade of green.

From outside, it hardly looks like a national model for juvenile-justice reform. But inside, empty cells stand as testament to what has happened over the last eight years. Instead of locking young criminals behind bars, this mostly liberal seaside community has bucked the national trend and is sending all but the worst offenders into alternative corrections programs. Led by a band of ...

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