Crime prevention and intervention for youth bumped a new jail from the top of the list of recommendations made each quarter by the Warren County grand jury.

“The grand jury is strongly convinced that early intervention in the lives of our youth is the key to substantially reducing the incidences of future crime and costs to Warren County,” grand jurors wrote in the report.

Grand jurors called for increased funding for youth court, expedited funding for foster families from the Department of Health and Human Services, and increased intervention in schools in order to help lower the crime rate, according to the report.

“The grand jury believes an earlier — elementary age — education/intervention program be put in place, if not already, with the elementary schools,” jurors wrote.

The grand jury meets in January, May, July and October, and a new jail has been one of several recommendations for at least two decades and the top recommendation since at least 2008. This term the jail comes in as the second of four recommendations.

Grand jurors echoed sentiments of the past few grand juries when they called for fewer studies and more action on building the correctional facility.

“We recommend that more aggressive action be taken to fund this facility,” they wrote.

The 128-bed facility was built in 1906 and remodeled in the 1970s. Sheriff Martin Pace said overcrowding at the jail has forced inmates to be sent as far away as Brookhaven.

Increased courtroom security and an additional circuit courtroom were also recommended. No recommendations were given on the type of increased security or the location of the second courtroom. County officials called courtroom security into question in early October after a defendant attempted to stab himself in the courtroom with a knife he had smuggled in.

Grand jurors also recommended continued funding for Warren County Children’s Shelter and the establishment of an additional children’s home. No recommendation was made as to the location or how to fund the home.

“We feel that the implementation of a children’s home as a preventative measure is of the highest priority,” jurors wrote.