TV REVIEWS : Making a Case for ‘Youth at Risk’

With more than a hint of angry desperation, “Youth at Risk: Closing L.A.’s Probation Camps” lays out an eloquent case against the scheduled elimination of one of the few successful criminal rehabilitation programs, slated to fall victim to the county’s enormous budget deficit.

Airing tonight on KCET’s “Life and Times” series on Channel 28 at 7:30 and midnight, the half-hour documentary personalizes the argument by profiling four young women, convicted of violent crimes, who have responded to the probation camp’s tight discipline, positive role models, peaceful social order and a first-time chance to find some self-worth in community service.

Threatened by the loss of one of their only effective crime-prevention tools, camp officials, probation officers, a state assemblyman, L.A. County Supervisors and district attorneys in the overwhelmed Juvenile Division make emotional appeals to the public’s good sense and practical appeals to its pocketbook: $14,000 houses a juvenile in the camps; the tab is $76,000 in a California Youth Authority prison facility. Statistically, only 30% of those in the camp system will be repeat offenders, compared to 70% of those incarcerated in the Youth Authority.

The camps are funded through Dec. 30, confirms L.A. County Probation Department spokesman Craig Levy. A search is under way for the $60 million required annually to maintain the operation.