When a 17-year-old accused murderer escaped from the new San Mateo County Youth Services Center recently, the outcry began. How could this occur at what was supposed to be a state-of-the-art juvenile detention center that cost $150 million in taxpayers’ money? The details of how the young man managed to break out of the facility, located in the hills near the Highway 92/Interstate 280 interchange, are coming to light. And the county officials responsible for security at the center are having to come up with some answers. That’s all well and good. But the incident should also be an opportunity to come to grips with a reality that not many in leadership roles want to address: The level of violence being perpetrated by some Peninsula youth, particularly ethnic gang members, is a very real and present danger to the entire community. So the primary function of the county’s juvenile probation people is not rehabilitation of the inmates, it’s the safety of the community at large. That’s why the center has fencing and other supposed safeguards intended to keep the young offenders away from the law-abiding citizenry. Make no mistake, far too many of the current crop of young law-breakers are not your garden variety shoplifters or purse snatchers. They are violent and an imminent threat to society. For too long, county authorities have patted themselves on the back for creating a “campus” instead of a “jail.” It’s time to re-think that approach. If that’s not being sufficiently in tune with current trendy approaches to dealing with juvenile criminals, so be it. Sadly, the Peninsula has changed a great deal in just one generation. As a result, the therapeutic kid glove treatment doesn’t seem to be working.