New Jersey Governor Tours Youth Center

New Jersey’s governor on Wednesday accompanied the wife of California Gov. Pete Wilson on a tour of a Ventura County juvenile program hailed for keeping emotionally troubled youths out of state institutions and saving thousands of government dollars.

New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman took a 15-minute walk through the Frank A. Colston Youth Center in Ventura with Gayle Wilson.

The center’s Ventura Model program has a national reputation for rehabilitating repeat youth offenders before they end up in state mental hospitals and prisons, said Randall Feltman, county mental health agency director.

Feltman said the program is run and staffed by the county’s corrections agency in collaboration with mental health and school system officials. By working together on one program for Colston’s 45 youth offenders, he said, Ventura Model has reduced recidivism rates by 30% to 40% since its inception in 1985. He added that Ventura County spends $8 million less per year on juvenile placements than the state average.

“I think it certainly speaks to the effectiveness of coordination,” Whitman said after the tour.

Whitman, who has been working to revamp New Jersey’s juvenile justice system, said Ventura Model bolsters the argument that close coordination of government agencies can maximize services and minimize costs.

Don Kingdon, chief of the county’s Children and Youth System, said Colston’s 13- to 17 1/2-year-old offenders are held for three to six months rather than the years they can sit in state institutions. “Instead of just locking them up,” he said, “here there’s more of a behavioral focus . . . that shows you can affect change.”

Program participants’ offenses range from vandalism to sex crimes and armed robbery.

Three youths from the center led Wilson and Whitman on a tour of housing corridors, classrooms and athletic facilities.

“Do you stay with one group all the way through?” asked Whitman, referring to the 15-member groups the youths are placed in. “Yes, all day,” answered one of the youths.

The two guests were also shown charts of target behaviors the youths strive for each week--such as staying positive, minding one’s own business and being patient with staff members. Across the hall, they checked out more charts and written comments posted each day by staff members who keep track of each youth’s progress in school work, chores and behavioral patterns.

“I’ve worked on my alcohol issues; I’ve worked on my family issues with my dad,” one of the youths told Whitman. “I feel very confident I can make it out there now.”