SANTA ANA : New Program OKd for Graffiti Cases

Minors arrested for graffiti vandalism may face punishment within a few days rather than have to go through the Juvenile Court system under a new program adopted by the City Council this week.

Under the program, which was designed to circumvent the overcrowded Juvenile Court system, minors arrested on graffiti-related charges could essentially settle their cases with the city out of court, Police Lt. Robert Helton said.

Focusing primarily on first-time offenders, the program offers minors and their parents a chance to negotiate the amount of restitution to be paid to the city and the amount of community service the defendant must perform. Parents would be contacted about negotiations within days of their child’s arrest. The alternative would be for the case to be settled in Juvenile Court, which would take several weeks and deny the family the possibility of negotiating a settlement, Helton said.

Parental involvement and the prospect of long weekend hours of community service should deter many taggers, but it will not provide an answer to the city’s graffiti problems, Helton said.

“It’s not going to work on the hard-core, repeat person,” he said. “(But) in the long run, it will defray some of the cost” of cleaning up graffiti.

Private agencies would be hired to perform the negotiations. Also, because the new program was adopted in a resolution, it became effective immediately.