California juvenile offenders may now have a better chance at rehabilitation rather than facing a mostly punitive sentence in a juvenile detention system that often only reinforced the patterns of neglect and violence that got many of them into trouble in the first place.
On Saturday, California closed its last three state-run juvenile detention centers and handed over day-to-day operations of juvenile halls to county probation departments. The plan decentralizes care for juvenile offenders and prioritizes keeping them closer to home in facilities that focus less on punishment and more on reform — all in the hope of breaking “the school-to-prison pipeline,” as Gov. Gavin Newsom puts it. stated in 2020.
But will it be enough?
Proponents say the elimination of a punitive approach reflects their belief that children who commit crimes are better served in environments that emphasize education, mental health and other support services.
But supporters and skeptics alike say there is still a lot of uncertainty ahead.
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The state-run system had a checkered history marked by suicides and inmate fights, as well as allegations of physical and sexual abuse by staff members. And more recently, state facilities have been reserved for the worst offenders: young people who have committed murder, assault and other serious crimes.
“At the local level, we just don’t have the programs and services, or the culture, ready to treat the kids with real needs, the ones who are dealing with severe trauma,” said Frankie Guzmán, director of the California Youth Justice Department. Initiative at the National Center for Juvenile Justice. He himself served six years in California juvenile detention centers for armed robbery.
Jose, a 21-year-old who spent nearly two years in a state-run juvenile facility in the San Francisco Bay Area, described a facility where classes and treatment programs were often canceled due to staff shortages. Fighting was common, illegal drugs were readily available, and gang members jostled for power in dormitories and yards. He was sprayed twice by guards while fending off attacks from other youths, he said.
“You feel like you’re not safe and need to be on your guard,” said Jose, who asked that his full name not be used for fear of personal and professional repercussions. “You feel like you’re always a target.”
Jose said he had to navigate a complicated system of incentives and rewards to eventually access behavioral therapy, education and vocational training.
Frankie Guzmán, the director of the National Center for Youth Law’s California Youth Justice Initiative, poses for a photo on June 27, 2023 in Long Beach, California. (AP photo/Ashley Landis)
“My mission was to get out of there,” he said. He was eventually released early after serving time for a series of offenses including stealing a car and associating with a gang — things he said he did after he got mixed up with the wrong crowd after emigrating from Mexico.
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Other kids weren’t as motivated and were caught in a loop of acting and subsequent punishment. The old system was not fully equipped to help young people with anger issues and untreated trauma, he said.
California’s first facility for troubled youth—the San Francisco Industrial School—was established by the legislature in 1859 as an alternative to housing children as young as 12 alongside adults in San Quentin and Folsom state prisons. Two years later, the State Reform School opened in Marysville for boys ages 8-18. At one point, the state system included 11 lockups with about 10,000 youth.
Today, the population of juvenile offenders in the remaining state institutions was about 300. Their median age was 19, and in 2020 a disproportionate 88% were black or Hispanic.
California counties are already treating about 35,000 juvenile offenders — more than 3,600 of them being held in juvenile homes, camps and farms.
County probation departments say they are determined to make the law work despite the challenges of a decentralized system. Officials fear smaller counties will struggle to provide care for youth with severe mental health needs, said Karen Pank, executive director of California’s Chief of Probation.
And some rural counties in Northern California will have to consolidate and share facilities.
Although California has ramped up funding for behavioral health in recent years, not enough is flowing to youth or the state’s 58 county probation departments tasked with handling the new system, Pank said.
“The state needs to break down barriers and listen to the counties to hear what they really need,” she said.
California will send counties about $230 million annually to help cover those costs.
County probation officers, meanwhile, will try to balance reform advocates’ focus on rehabilitation with judges who – at the request of prosecutors – can still send older teens to adult prisons for the most serious crimes.
Yet others believe meaningful change will only happen with robust state oversight.
“It’s wrong to think that the state of California can just move the prison population to the county juvenile facility and that we will suddenly have a more successful juvenile justice system,” said Meredith Desautels, a staff attorney at the Youth Law Center in San Francisco. . Transformation, she said, is only possible if California recognizes it “as an ongoing process that requires constant adjustments.”
Oversight of the realigned system will be carried out by the new Office of Youth and Community Recovery, part of the state agency for health and welfare services, rather than the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
That offers little comfort to Guzmán, who fears the new office “has no teeth” and will be unable to provide the oversight the provinces need. A bill passed by the General Assembly last month aims to give the office more regulatory authority, including the ability to respond to reports of abuse.
The state-run system, while far from perfect, had concentrated resources on campuses suitable for schools and could provide vocational training and care, Guzmán said.
“Now that we’re closing those, you’re left with a lot of smaller facilities that don’t have resources, essentially provincial prisons for juveniles,” he said.
Katherine Lucero, director of the Office of Youth and Community Restoration, admitted that the counties still have work to do.
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Her office is staffing internally and has built relationships with a range of partners, including attorneys, therapists and advocates “to ensure youth have a supportive and safe environment as they return to their home communities,” Lucero said in a statement.
Lucero defended her office’s relationship with a now-defunct nonprofit founded by probation officers across California shortly after Newsom’s decision to close juvenile detention centers. The County Probation Consortium Partnering for Youth Realignment, with a board consisting of most of California’s probation officers, made recommendations on the resources needed by the counties.
Critics said the consortium added an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and secrecy, and the nonprofit was the target of a lawsuit demanding greater transparency. Late last month, the nonprofit said it would close because “critical need for the consortium has come to an end.”
Jose, the former juvenile detainee, said that when he arrived in prison as an angry, rudderless young man, he couldn’t imagine the future he has now: working full-time with the aim of starting his own business and raising a family.
His main hope for the new system is a major workforce change and a renewed focus on health and wellness. During his sentence, he mainly dealt with staffers “who weren’t invested, they weren’t professionals, they were just there to watch”.
“We need people who want to make it more therapeutic,” he said. “It’s learning to function more in a community by replacing negative behavior with positive behavior.”
CA moves responsibilities for state prisons to county level to keep young offenders close to home
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