Cuts in Youth Probation Camps Opposed at Hearing

The county’s top prosecutor and other elected officials shared a podium with youthful offenders Friday to oppose state budget cuts that could cripple the state’s youth camp system, particularly in Los Angeles County.

The hearing--held at Camp Karl Holton, a juvenile probation camp in Angeles National Forest north of San Fernando--was called by Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills) in response to Gov. Pete Wilson’s decision to cut funding for the camps in his proposed 1995-96 budget.

The cuts would mean closing five of the county’s 19 camps, which would affect 1,100 of the county’s 2,100 camp inmates. The cuts have engendered bipartisan resistance among Los Angeles County legislators.

“The camps do a vital job at keeping kids out of the California Youth Authority, and ultimately prison,” said Boland, chairwoman of the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee. The officials told Boland and Assembly members Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) and Diane Martinez (D-Alhambra) that sending juvenile offenders to camps instead of harsher facilities saves money, helps the teen-agers catch up with schoolwork and turns the majority of them around--making the streets safer for everyone.

The camps, designed for nonviolent juvenile offenders, seek to re-integrate the youths into society, in part by requiring them to go to camp schools.

“The camp system gives the system credibility,” said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Martinez. “Without camps, you have to ask yourself, ‘Do you take this 15-year-old caught twice with drugs and put him in CYA with murderers and drive-by shooters?’ ”

“Mark my words,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said. “If camps close, we’ll have more victims of crime.”

If the five county camps are shut down, law enforcement officials would have to decide which youths would be set free and which would be sent to CYA facilities.

Chris Flores, 17, of Arleta, who has been arrested three times--including once for hitting the principal of his high school with a car--told the hearing that the 7 1/2 months he spent in a camp changed his life.