Keep County Juvenile Camps, Schools Open

Again the specter of budget cuts rears its ugly head. We all flinch from the painful cuts that must be imposed due to unfunded federal and state mandates, program cutbacks, reductions of county and state funding and a whole myriad of reasons.

A case in point is the proposed closure of the county juvenile camps and schools. Counties and cities support Assembly Bill 799 because it encourages funding of juvenile camps/schools to provide supervised detention, appropriate educational programs to over 5,000 high-risk students and a program to decrease the risk of crime by juveniles through education, supervision and caring administration.

It costs taxpayers 50% more each month to house juvenile offenders in group homes (the other alternative) than in probation camps and 30% more per month per student in the California Youth Authority (CYA).

For over 50 years the camp/schools have done what other youth offender programs haven’t. They have provided high-quality education, helped students identify and change bad behavior and created an incentive to become law abiding, productive citizens.

I strongly urge you to write your legislators to take action to maintain probation camp/schools. Locally, Camp Scudder and Camp Scott and their staffs, through education, hands-on direction and caring, have done an outstanding job to convert and educate today’s juvenile offender from becoming tomorrow’s adult criminal.

Please ask Gov. Wilson and the Legislature to authorize funding support for AB799 and ask the L . A . County Board of Supervisors to refrain from closing probation camp/school programs.

JO ANNE DARCY

Mayor, Santa Clarita