Youth Crime Can’t Be Ignored : Counties’ crucial probation camps face debilitating cuts in state funding

Fighting crime is a major demand of Americans today, and that includes getting young offenders off the streets as well as career criminals. Yet despite the law-and-order fervor, many juveniles arrested in California may soon receive little more than a slap on the wrist because hard-pressed counties can’t afford to run youth camps. The camps, which operate in 23 counties, are worth saving because they have a solid track record of rehabilitating young offenders before they graduate to a career of crime.

Teen-agers sent to these camps typically have committed holdups, break-ins or lesser crimes. Those incarcerated at the more demanding and more expensive California Youth Authority typically have done more serious crimes or repeat offenses. The average CYA stay is 20 months and costs the state $53,000. At probation camp, the average stay is six months, costs $12,000 and is paid for by the counties.

Gov. Pete Wilson should allocate $33 million for camps in his fiscal 1995-96 budget. Wilson earmarked that amount for camps in the two preceding budgets after the Legislature passed AB 799, sponsored by Terry B. Friedman, who is now a judge. That bill mandated a county-state partnership to finance youth camps. Los Angeles would get $18 million because it accounts for about 55% of the state’s probation camp beds. Orange County’s Los Pinos camp in Cleveland National Forest also would benefit.

At camp, young people learn discipline and job skills. Most stay out of future trouble; only 25% go on to the CYA. If probation camps are closed, many more young offenders will be sent to CYA facilities, already operating at 140% of capacity. Some camp residents would be sent to group homes, if there was room. Some would go home to become part of a probation officer’s caseload, which in Los Angeles now averages 1,000 offenders.

Closing youth camps may help to reduce a county’s fiscal burden, but eliminating the close supervision could create a public safety problem. Wilson and the Legislature must act quickly to keep the camps open.