Police Youth Project Has Funds, Plans : Oxnard: Operation Revitalization expects renewal of U.S. grant for its counseling program. But some question its ballyhooed results.

An Oxnard police program that has funneled nearly 500 troubled youths into counseling and rehabilitation programs has reduced crime, blight and truancy in some of the city’s poorest areas, positioning it for another $240,000 infusion from the federal government, officials said.

The tax dollars will allow the program, called Operation Revitalization, to continue for at least another year, said Lt. Gino Rodriguez, coordinator of the program for the Oxnard Police Department.

“We have succeeded beyond our expectations,” he said. “This program works.”

But critics say Operation Revitalization has done little more than take troublemakers off the streets for a short period. And they question the relevance of statistics showing an overall drop in crime in Oxnard over the past two years.

“There are so many factors that can affect crime rates,” said Michelle Erich, a Port Hueneme attorney who heads the conservative group Citizens for Accountability in Public Education.

“They need to have some kind of tracking system before they get any more money so they can determine if the kids who go through the program are benefited in the long term.”

An examination of Operation Revitalization suggests that it has produced mixed results.

A year and a half after the operation was assembled in a tiny converted warehouse behind the Oxnard Police Department, the program has placed in counseling and rehabilitation sessions nearly 500 youths ages 14 to 17 who have committed minor crimes or are using drugs and alcohol.

The $360,000 federal grant that paid for the 18-month pilot project is administered in California through the state Office of Criminal Justice Planning.

The idea is simple: First-time juvenile offenders are given a chance to avoid prosecution by agreeing to attend counseling sessions. Serious offenders might be directed to more intense counseling and work-skills training.

The sessions last 10 to 12 weeks at the student’s high school and are run by psychologists and county health officers trained in dealing with substance abuse.

Students get the chance to talk about their problems with chemical addiction, relatives, gangs or anything else that might lure them into street crime, Rodriguez said.

A coordinator with the Oxnard Union High School District and an officer from the county Probation Department work closely with Rodriguez to identify potential participants and make sure each youth completes a program.

Anyone who drops out is immediately referred to the district attorney’s office for prosecution, Rodriguez said.

The programs have grown so popular at Oxnard’s four high school campuses that hundreds of students have begun requesting admission to the program--without having been arrested, Rodriguez said.

Of the 500 students served, about 300 are self-referrals, he said.

Another component of the program is to clean up neighborhoods.

Students have joined with neighborhood activists to brighten communities that once were covered in graffiti and litter, Rodriguez.

And police have cracked down on businesses and other trouble spots that contributed to juvenile delinquency.

In La Colonia, the Oxnard barrio where the program’s efforts were initially directed, police have closed five bars and a liquor store that were caught selling alcohol to minors, Rodriguez said. Through the program, authorities persuaded Southern California Edison to install brighter street lighting at corners known for heavy drug traffic.

And Operation Revitalization officers have helped coordinate after-school activities for poor youths, including dances and parties on Friday nights, night basketball at city high schools and tutoring programs manned by program clients, Rodriguez said.

Gavin McCluskey, who coordinates Operation Revitalization programs throughout the state, said he has observed a big improvement in La Colonia’s “quality of life.”

“The first time I visited, the only thing that wasn’t tagged was Cesar Chavez’s statue,” McCluskey said. “Now it looks cleaner and feels safer, so residents aren’t afraid to come out of their homes at night.”

But less clear, say some critics, is whether the Oxnard program is fulfilling its primary objective: reducing youth-related crime citywide.

Although calls for police service to La Colonia have decreased slightly during the past 18 months and the city’s crime rate has dipped to its lowest levels in two decades, burglaries citywide increased 11% from 1993 to 1994.

But Oxnard Police Chief Harold Hurtt sees that climb as temporary. He notes that burglaries have dropped 28% in the first six months of this year.

But police also saw an increase in gang activity earlier this year and formed a task force to crack down before it escalated, Hurtt said.

It is perhaps better to look at the long-term effects of the project rather than year-to-year fluctuations in crime, he added.

“We are so numbers conscious that we can’t wait to see what the long-term outcome will be,” he said. “If we can have an impact on a youngster before he turns 18, I think that is very significant.”

Still, Hurtt and virtually everyone else agrees that long-term tracking of individual teen-agers is needed to properly gauge Operation Revitalization’s success. But that won’t be possible unless the Oxnard Police Department receives additional money to institute a tracking system, he said.

“We need more money on a national basis to research and follow up on these youngsters five, 10, 15 years down the line,” Hurtt said.

One such proposal for follow-up is already in the works, he said. In September, Operation Revitalization will be expanded to include a research unit. Using a $250,000 state grant, the unit will divide a group of 30 youths participating in the program into two groups, Rodriguez said.

One group will be offered certain types of counseling and support and the second will receive another array of services, he said. Researchers will check in with the teen-agers on a monthly basis and then evaluate the effectiveness of the different approaches at the end of three years, he said.

“We’re trying to find out what works and what doesn’t,” he said.

But once the participants reach the age of 18, the program will no longer track their progress, Rodriguez said, because the program has the authority only to monitor juveniles. After that, other state and federal programs must pick up the ball, he said.

For many jurisdictions, that means sending criminals to jail. Current trends in law enforcement tend to focus on early intervention as the best way to prevent adult crime, Rodriguez added.

“We used to just throw them in prison. But that didn’t work. So now all the emphasis is on youths.”

He is convinced that is the better route, especially the multi-pronged programs offered by Operation Revitalization.

“I’ve seen kids who have gone through every counselor and program at school, but it didn’t do any good,” he said. “With our program, there is a direct consequence for an action.”

Erich, the Port Hueneme lawyer, remains unconvinced.

“We’ve had 50 years of treating criminal behavior as something that can be fixed,” she said. “But we can’t educate people out of drugs or teen pregnancy or gang involvement. The underlying problems go back to our society and the breakdown of the family.”