Sex Bias Seen in County’s Youth Rehabilitation : Juveniles: Los Pinos Conservation Camp and Joplin Youth Center exclude girls, depriving them of resources for turning their lives around, the Legal Aid Society says.

A boy who gets into trouble with the law in Orange County might end up at Los Pinos Conservation Camp near Lake Elsinore, where he’ll get drug and alcohol rehabilitation counseling, parenting classes and vocational training.

There, at a rural and mountainous setting, the boy also might pick up valuable skills in landscaping and forestry through work projects in Cleveland National Forest that could lead to a job when he gets back out into society.

Or he might serve his sentence at the Joplin Youth Center in Trabuco Canyon, which offers computer classes and electrical training, as well as family counseling and help in finding a job later.

But if a girl gets into trouble with the law in Orange County, says the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, she can’t get any of this. Girls are not allowed at either Los Pinos or Joplin.

And that, the society told the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday, unfairly deprives girls of access to valuable rehabilitative resources.

“In this day and age there is no acceptable excuse for offering such programs to boys only,” said Robert J. Cohen, executive director of the Legal Aid Society. “Girls in Orange County have severely limited opportunities for placement, compared to boys.”

Cohen said in a letter to the supervisors that the inequities have to be corrected.

If the county does not open to girls all the services that are now available to boys, Cohen said in his letter, his group and the Poverty Law Center are prepared to issue a court challenge.

“But litigation will be very expensive for the county, and very expensive for us,” Cohen said. “We would much prefer just sitting down with them, looking at the law (governing what services the county should provide for all youths) and meeting the law.”

Board of Supervisors Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez said he had not yet seen Cohen’s letter but added that the Legal Aid Society should not rush to judgment.

“I think they ought to give the county an opportunity to review their concerns and comment on what we should do about it if it is a problem,” he said.

Female juvenile offenders serve their sentences at the Youth Guidance Center in Santa Ana, a coeducational institution that offers educational and rehabilitative services to both boys and girls. But, Cohen said, there is no reason that the other two facilities cannot be made available to girls too.

County officials, however, counter that there is no scheme to deny girls good programs.

“The issue is one of numbers,” said Michael Schumacher, the county’s chief probation officer.

About 350 youths are serving time in the three facilities for crimes ranging from robbery to peddling drugs. About 8% of these offenders are girls, who are mostly assigned to the Youth Guidance Center, which has 25 beds set aside for girls.

“We have difficulty even keeping those filled,” Schumacher said.

Another five girls are sent to a Riverside County facility, similar to Los Pinos, through a special agreement with authorities there, who in turn send five boys to Orange County. Also, 22 other girls are in private institutions, such as group homes or drug or alcohol rehabilitation centers.

“From our perspective, we have the same array of services for girls as for boys,” Schumacher said.

But Cohen’s group said the programs at Los Pinos and Joplin appear to be much more specialized and geared to prepare male juvenile offenders for the world beyond incarceration.

At Joplin, on the lower slopes of Saddleback, 60 boys ages 14 to 16 are typically serving about 120-day sentences. Emphasis is given to individual responsibility and accountability through a daily grading system. As each boy meets or exceeds his performance levels, his privileges are increased.

The Los Pinos program is designed for 125 older, more sophisticated boys who have been committed for 90 days or longer.

The program at Los Pinos depends on a high degree of involvement from the staff, and the inmates have to demonstrate progress in a structured program that emphasizes work, family and community.

If some of the services are structured for boys, Schumacher said, it is partly because male juvenile offenders tend to commit different kinds of crimes than girls.

“Boys as a rule commit more violent crimes than the girls, and the girls tend to have more sociological problems, such as family problems, running away,” he said.