Young Offenders Work in Valley to Avoid Lockup

“Some dude at school called me a wimp so I showed him what kind of wimp I was,” the 14-year-old Canoga Park boy said. “I pushed him and his face met the wall.”

Several months and juvenile court appearances later, the boy was wearing a fluorescent orange vest and hard hat, laboring in the weekend heat clearing a hillside, pulling weeds and pruning trees.

“In a way I guess I deserve all this work,” he said as sweat beads dripped from his chin. “The dude got a dislocated shoulder and a fractured nose, I think. I’m out there working and keep thinking of how dumb the whole entire thing was.”

Countywide Program

The boy and a crew of 11 other youths working at the College of the Canyons in Valencia over the weekend were part of a countywide work program run by the Probation Department for juveniles who have committed minor offenses and would otherwise have been sentenced to up to 30 days in a detention facility.

The 18-month-old program, called Juvenile Alternative Work Service, expanded to the San Fernando Valley Saturday and Sunday. About 45 area youths will be dispatched each weekend to mainly Valley work sites to begin serving their time laboring at public facilities rather than sitting in Juvenile Hall in Sylmar.

Although juvenile court judges and commissioners at the San Fernando Valley Juvenile Court have sentenced youths to the JAWS program since its inception in October, 1983, the work has been as far away as Pomona or Santa Monica. Several hours of the crew’s day were spent traveling in county vans.

From 3 to 16 Crews

“Now, with the Valley branch, we can deal exclusively with Valley projects,” said Bob Godfrey, the probation officer directing the program out of Juvenile Hall in Sylmar.

Until now, the program administration had been handled at Central Juvenile Hall in Lincoln Heights. But as it grew from three to 16 crews, the need arose for a separate staff to handle youths in the Valley, said Dennis Kelley, JAWS program director.

The program was developed as a partial solution to relieving crowded conditions in the three juvenile detention facilities where, much like county jails, people are are held to serve short sentences and to await court proceedings or transfer to a another facility, Kelley said.

In juvenile court proceedings, judges and commissioners can sentence a youth to a maximum of 30 days in a detention facility as a condition of probation. The JAWS program gives judges an alternative to Juvenile Hall.

Most Would Rather Work

Program administrators said that few juveniles refused the chance to participate in the program rather than serve their sentence in a juvenile hall.

“I’ve only come across one case where a minor didn’t want to work, where he said, ‘Just take me into custody,’ ” San Fernando Juvenile Court Commissioner Michael Price said.

“I hate being in the hall,” a 17-year-old Arleta boy said. “I hate the people, I hate the food. You get mad in there real quick. They even tell you when to go to the bathroom.”

The youth said he had served nine months at a state Youth Authority camp for assault with a deadly weapon and was now serving JAWS time for a parole violation.

“I was walking down the street at night drinking a beer and the police got me,” he said. “Even this work is better than the hall. . . . I just mind my own business and work.”

‘Better Than’ Lockup

A 16-year-old San Fernando youth said that the program is “nothing to be really happy about, but anything is better than being locked up. No one in my family except my parents and my sisters know that I’m doing this on weekends.”

Youths who opt for the JAWS program must serve the first 48 hours in Juvenile Hall, where they are interviewed and given a physical examination to determine if they are fit for labor. Then they are released to their parents or guardian and serve the remainder of their sentence working on weekends.

“We are sentencing lightweight offenders who get a taste of the hall for two days and they have to go out in the community and work,” said Commissioner Jack Gold of the San Fernando juvenile court in Sylmar.

“If we have a kid who deserves a chance on probation and it would be counterproductive to give them more than a couple of days in jail, we’ll give them JAWS time,” Gold said. “He will learn in this program that the courts are going to find him accountable.”

A Bargain for Cities

Kelley said the program appeals to cities and public agencies that need quick manual labor help because they pay $250 a day for 12 to 15 youths to work six hours.

“I have 158 acres here to take care of and only six groundskeepers,” said Cal Allsup, director of facilities at College of the Canyons. “These kids cover a lot of ground in a short time. Weeding and raking is redundant work. I can’t tie up my people with it.”

The program is about 70% self-supporting, Kelley said. Tools, transportation to the work site, vests, hard hats and a lunch is provided by the county.

The youths are under the constant supervision of probation officers equipped with walkie-talkies used to summon police if trouble arises.

The youths are searched for weapons and drugs when they arrive at 7 a.m. at the Van Nuys Boulevard probation office. The crew’s work movements are radioed to a roving probation officer who monitors different crews in the area.

It’s Work or Hall

If the youths don’t show up to work, they are in violation of their probation and run the risk of being sent back to Juvenile Hall to serve the remainder of their time.

At the end of the day, grades are given for work performance. Four “A” grades mean a day is knocked off their time. A “D,” which is given for a serious offense such as a fight or refusing to work at the site, means the day must be repeated. One “F,” for carrying contraband, hiding or trying to escape, means a quick trip back to Juvenile Hall.

“This is more of a form of punishment,” Godfrey said. “They are working all day instead of kicking back. When they are on this program we are keeping their lives pretty much occupied.”

Kelley said the program has grown because the courts view the program as a stringent penalty for juvenile offenders that in many cases is preferable to ordering the youth to serve community service hours doing menial work for government agencies or charitable organizations.

1,015 Worked Shifts

“You can’t get away from the fact that judges are viewing this as a highly desirable type of experience,” Kelley said.

Since the program began, 1,015 youths--10% of them girls--have worked the weekend shifts. Kelley said he expects the Valley branch to expand from three to five or six crews in the next six months.

“I have a feeling that this program caught on rapidly because there is no great gain in having a minor in Juvenile Hall that is not a danger to the community,” Price said.