Funding Found for County’s Juvenile Camps

Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford said Monday that he has identified $7.7 million in funds to keep Los Angeles County’s 19 probation camps for juvenile offenders open until June 30.

The camps faced closure after state authorities said earlier this month that they could not provide the $30 million necessary to keep the camps open each year. Officials have said that most of the 2,000 youths in the camps would be released from custody if the camps are closed.

The camps were established to reform youths ages 12 to 18, who have been in serious trouble, by providing a regimen of strict discipline, intensive education and hard work.

Wards of Camp Louis Routh in Big Tujunga Canyon are, for example, trained in fire suppression by county firefighters. Camp Mendenall in the Antelope Valley is a military-style boot camp.

If the camps are closed, Juvenile Court judges would have to choose between placing youths in group homes, which are crowded and generally bar violent youths from enrolling; the California Youth Authority, which is reserved for the most violent and which costs more, or releasing them on probation.

Hufford said he can temporarily fund the camps with $3 million in unspent funds allotted to Hope in Youth, an anti-gang program that has been unable to start operations this year. Additional support for the camps could come from the county’s Productivity Investment Fund.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the proposal today.