“I think the opportunities are there to create environments (for offenders) that are safer and more therapeutic,” said Tom Woods, senior associate for The Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based charitable organization.

“The time to do it is now,” Woods told the task force in a briefing Tuesday.

The Chesapeake facility, part of a $40 million project that also would include state support for a new local detention center next door, is the first step toward replacing big youth prisons that have done a poor job of preparing juvenile offenders to re-enter communities and stay out of custody.

The General Assembly included planning and construction money for the project in a new bond package and also allowed the Department of Juvenile Justice to keep savings from operating the smaller facility to invest in other community-based options for juveniles, including alternative placement programs at local detention centers.

The legislature also allowed the state to proceed with planning for either replacing or renovating Bon Air, as well as other options that the task force will consider in its final report, due in July.