COUNTYWIDE : D.A.’s Program Is Award Candidate

The Ford Foundation has nominated a Ventura County district attorney program that returns abducted children to their legal guardians for a Harvard University award that honors innovation in government.

The Parental Child Abduction and Recovery Unit was one of 76 semifinalists, including 13 from California, selected from the 1,600 programs that applied for this year’s competition, the foundation announced. In July, the field will be narrowed to 25 finalists, with 10 being named winners in October and awarded $100,000 apiece. The other finalists will each receive $20,000 grants.

Programs are evaluated in terms of their novelty, effectiveness in addressing important problems, value to the clients who are served and whether the program can be duplicated by other jurisdictions.

Ventura County’s program goes further than most child custody units in California by emphasizing early intervention in custody disputes, said Special Assistant Dist. Atty. Don Coleman, the unit’s supervisor. By intervening early, the unit sometimes prevents an abduction from occurring, Coleman said.

“We try to avoid criminal prosecution because we don’t think that it’s the best thing for the child,” Coleman said.

Meryl Libbey, who helps run the program for Harvard’s Kennedy School, said evaluators were impressed by the abduction unit’s ability to avoid “messy, protracted and expensive” civil and criminal trials. “They are taking a preventive approach to what may be one of the most contentious issues people have to face,” Libbey said.

Once an abduction has occurred, the unit has the authority to work with other jurisdictions to force the return of the child.

“In some instances, we’ll track down the child or children out of state or out of the country and physically bring them back,” said Coleman. The unit has been responsible for returning 542 children to their rightful custodians in seven years, said Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury.