Officials Consider Partnership to Fund Youth Probation Camps

State and county officials met at a Los Angeles County youth probation camp in Little Tujunga Canyon on Friday to work on a financial partnership that could keep such camps open for another year.

Last year’s lean county budget called for closing 18 of the county’s 19 camps, which annually house an estimated 4,500 youthful offenders, some of whom would otherwise be placed with more hardened criminals in California Youth Authority prisons. But at the last minute, one-time county funding was found to keep the camps open through May.

Even though state Assembly members attending the fact-finding hearing Friday at Camp Karl Holton said they are willing to push for matching state funding to maintain the camps for another year, several also said they want to completely revamp the state’s juvenile justice system.

The estimated 1993-’94 cost of operating the Los Angeles County camps is $61 million, which the county and state would probably split 50-50 under the proposed partnership, the subject of pending state legislation.

Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman, D-Los Angeles, said she was distressed by testimony from several of the camps’ juvenile wards, who admitted they had been arrested several times before ending up in camp, yet had received no counseling or other assistance after those earlier contacts with law enforcement.

“It seems to me we have a reverse pyramid, where we’re spending the most money at the top, at the CYA, and the least at the bottom, at the county level,” Friedman said. “Is there a way we can turn the pyramid around . . . and be more effective in the local community?”

County officials agreed with Friedman’s assessment, saying they have long been frustrated about their inability to attempt to prevent delinquency before it turns into the serious crimes that lead to camp commitment. They blamed the rapid erosion in local government funds that followed passage of Proposition 13, which slowed the increase in property tax revenues.

Marcus Tucker, presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court, said he would like to see more prevention programs, like one being tried in Long Beach that is aimed at halting elementary school truancy.

“By the time they get into a court, they’re climbing a mountain,” Tucker said. “They’re already so far behind . . . the criminal peer pressure has become so negative.”

For the short term, Tucker joined bureaucrats, camp teachers, and camp wards and their parents in pleading with the state to preserve what they see as one of the best alternatives for juvenile offenders.

“As a parent, you want to say, ‘Not my son. He’s not going to CYA,’ ” said Norma Alegria of Highland Park, whose son Raul has been held at Camp Karl Holton since December for stealing a car. “And the thing is, he’s made a complete changeover in his life here.”

Nereo Morales, 17, of Lake View Terrace, who was released from Camp Louis Roth in Big Tujunga Canyon earlier this week, said he plans to return to San Fernando High School to finish his senior year, but doesn’t plan to return to his gang. Morales was sent to camp for committing a strong-arm robbery.

“I now know what getting in the same old thing will get me,” Morales said, crediting the camp experience with reforming his attitude.

The chief probation officer from Tulare County in the San Joaquin Valley said his agency now regrets closing its only camp in 1988 and is trying to get it reopened.

“We dump our kids all over the state. It’s awful,” said Officer Larry R. Price. “Family reunification is not even in our vocabulary anymore.”

Los Angeles probation officials argued that it makes financial sense to keep the camps open because it costs more to house a juvenile in the youth authority. They cited estimates of $14,000 for the average six-month camp stay compared to $56,000 for the average two-year stint at the youth authority. They also said former camp wards are less likely to get into trouble again than are those released from the authority.

A representative of the state legislative analyst’s office said closing the camps could cost the state $38 million this year in increased placements at the youth authority and in group homes.

Youth authority officials also supported preserving county camps, but they objected to cost comparisons between the two programs because they are so different. They said averages are misleading because the CYA deals with the state’s most violent youths, who require more supervision and often must spend more time in custody.

In addition, Craig Brown, undersecretary of the state Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, reminded the Assembly members that under state law, the state can charge back to the county the cost of taking in the inmates from closed camps. That penalty was created as an incentive for counties to keep the camps open, Brown said.