State is closing its youth prisons, shifting the burden to counties like Stanislaus
Stanislaus County is assuming responsibility for reforming juvenile offenders under legislation that will close the state’s youth detention facilities.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a trailer bill in May that will formally close state Department of Juvenile Justice facilities on June 30, 2023, and return the remaining youth wards to their home counties. Another bill signed in September prohibits most new admissions to state Department of Juvenile Justice facilities starting this month, making newly committed youth offenders the county’s responsibility.
The state will provide realignment grants for juvenile wards to be housed and supervised at the county level.
About 20 young people from Stanislaus County are being held in state juvenile detention and will remain there until their release dates or the facilities close in June 2023.
The county Probation Department will assume responsibility for any of those young people released back to the county, along with the seven or eight youth offenders who are committed by the Juvenile Court every year for serious offenses such as murder, robbery, arson, sex offenses, kidnapping, attempted murder or assault with intent to cause serious harm.
The new laws prohibit almost all new admissions to the state Department of Juvenile Justice after July 1, unless the district attorney makes a motion to transfer a youth offender from Juvenile Court to adult court for prosecution.
According to a report to county supervisors last week, 16 young people going through the Juvenile Court process are currently detained in Juvenile Hall. Under the new laws, they will serve their sentence in Juvenile Hall if the judge holds them accountable.
Stanislaus County’s juvenile wards in state facilities include 18 males and one female. Nine are serving penalties for assault charges, six for robbery, one for manslaughter-related charges, one for carjacking, another for home invasion and one for burglary. The average commitment for those young wards is 23 months.
Mark Ferriera, county chief probation officer, said the Juvenile Court recently committed two young people to the state system following an adjudication for murder.
More than 60 percent of the young people from Stanislaus County remaining in the state system are 18 to 21 years old; 26 percent are younger than 18 and 11 percent are older than 21.
Because of a dramatic decline in admissions in recent years, the county has space in its Juvenile Hall and Juvenile Commitment Facility to house the young people transferred from the state.
In January, the local Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council created a subcommittee that crafted a plan for facilities, programs and services for rehabilitating youth offenders under the new state mandates.
The county expects to receive an annual state allocation for housing and supervising the young people between the ages of 14 and 24. The allocations through Senate Bill 823 are projected at $565,400 this year and $1.67 million in 2022-23.
Last week, county leaders authorized two-year contracts with organizations to work with the young offenders and get their lives turned around.
Contractors will run programs
Following a request for proposals in December, Leaders in Community Alternatives Inc. of Oakland was chosen as one contractor. The company says it uses evidence-based practices to change behavior and break cycles of crime, addiction and incarceration. The contract amount is $913,300 over two years.
The county Probation Department will contract with Modesto Junior College for a vocational education program called My Next Step for youth in custody. The program participants will receive career counseling and take vocational coursework.
The young people may have access to other vocational programs such as the Patterson Professional Truck Driving School, where students learn to drive a semi truck on a simulator.
Ferriera told supervisors last week that female offenders and those convicted of sex offenses will likely be placed in regional programming because they are few in number.
Depending on the offense, some young people may serve part of their commitment time in custody in the county’s juvenile facilities and the rest of their time in alternative programs such as home arrest or GPS monitoring.
With the state’s new approach, the Juvenile Court will follow an offense-based matrix in sentencing young offenders to terms of confinement. The term will reflect the time necessary for treatment and meeting the developmental needs of the young person, county staff said.
Probation officers will create an individual rehabilitation plan for each person, with review hearings every six months to measure progress. The wards completing their commitment will be put on probation, unless the court determines they are a risk of harm to others.
Those considered a risk to others can be confined for an additional year.
This story was originally published July 3, 2021 at 6:23 AM.
