Youths Sent Home Amid Probation Camp Crunch

More juvenile offenders convicted of violent crimes are being sent home instead of locked up as the county braces for the closure of 19 youth probation camps.

The number of youngsters sentenced to camp dropped by about two-thirds last month, with 140 sentenced compared to 422 in December 1994, according to county statistics.

The trend has alarmed criminal justice officials, including Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, who fears the streets are becoming less safe.

“It is not protecting county residents to have [violent juvenile offenders] placed at home with little punishment,” Garcetti said.

Officials say they have noticed a significant rise in juvenile offenders who are placed on probation.

“The bottom line is that if we’re not going to have the camps, the answer just can’t be to dump these kids back on the street,” said Tom Higgins, head deputy of the juvenile division of the district attorney’s office.

The camps are scheduled to be closed by mid-February due to the county’s fiscal woes unless the state Legislature and governor agree to free $17 million to fund them. Legislation to provide the funding is scheduled to be introduced this week.

Among the troubling cases cited by prosecutors:

* A 17-year-old gang member with 10 prior arrests, including auto theft and felony evading an officer. After one camp sentence, the minor was arrested in possession of a short-barreled rifle. The minor went home on probation.

* A 13-year-old girl with three prior arrests was charged with two counts of battery, one count of petty theft and one count of giving false information to a police officer. Later, in a fight at school, she stabbed a girl in the leg. She went home on probation.

* A 17-year-old male with two prior arrests broke into a home and admitted that he had attempted to rape a woman. The youth received a sentence at a nonsecure, open facility.

* A 14-year-old male kicked his mother, then attempted to stab her with a screwdriver. He was sent home on probation. In December, he was arrested while in possession of a .22-caliber handgun. He was placed in a group facility.

* A 16-year-old male stole a bicycle. During the crime, he lifted his shirt and exposed a handgun in his waistband. He was sent home on probation.

* During a drive-by, a minor opened fire with a semiautomatic pistol, injuring one person. The Probation Department recommended incarceration with the California Youth Authority; the court ordered home probation.

“I can tell you without a doubt that there are people who are at home now because of this who would be in camp,” said Chief Probation Officer Barry J. Nidorf.

The camp system is popular among prosecutors, public defenders, judges, police officers and politicians who maintain that the camps are a last chance to rehabilitate wayward youngsters before they embark on a life of crime.

They serve as the middle ground for young juvenile offenders--between the harsher California Youth Authority, where some of the state’s most violent youngsters are housed, and the relative freedom of living in a group home or at home and on probation.

The number of youngsters sent to the California Youth Authority--the next level up from the camps--rose only slightly, from 59 in December 1994 to 68 last month, according to the district attorney’s office.

Presiding county Juvenile Judge Richard Montes declined to comment. In November, after an appeal by the Probation Department to stop sending juveniles to camps because of the funding problems, Montes sent a memo advising court personnel that “until such time as funding is secured, camp placement orders are not a dispositional option.”

Of the 28 juvenile judges, commissioners and referees, the six who were interviewed said they had continued to hand down camp sentences despite the memo and knew of no colleagues who had stopped or cut back.

Judge Jaime R. Corral, the former presiding judge of the juvenile courts, said that after Montes’ sent the memo, Montes told judges at a meeting to do what they thought best, including continuing to sentence juveniles to camps until the camps officially closed.

“The general feeling [among the judges] was that we are going to continue sending kids to camp,” Corral said. “It hasn’t deterred me at all. That’s the Probation Department’s problem.”

“As far as I’m concerned, the camps are still there, so I’m treating it as an option,” said Judge Robert M. Martinez, who guessed that he had sent 15 or 20 youngsters to camp since receiving the memo.

But a sampling of figures from the nine juvenile court divisions shows a uniform drop in camp sentences and no marked increase in youngsters sent to the Youth Authority.

In the San Fernando and Antelope valleys, for example, camp placements decreased from 98 in December 1994 to 33 last month. Youth Authority placements also dropped, from eight in December 1994 to six last month.

At the Eastlake juvenile facility in East Los Angeles, camp placements went from 52 in December 1994 to 17 last month, and Youth Authority assignments increased from eight to nine.

In juvenile courts in the Pasadena area, camp sentences dropped precipitously, from 32 in December 1994 to just six last month. Youth Authority placements rose from three to four.

“We have been slowly sending these kids back in the community without telling anyone, and with little or no sanction,” said Jim Hickey, an assistant district attorney for the office’s juvenile division. “It is just outrageous that we release kids like this.”

Garcetti said some judges might feel pressured not to sentence even violent kids to camp because of Montes’ memo, leaving bench officers limited options.

“I think what happens is that there’s a natural reluctance by some [judges] to send youngsters to the CYA unless they’ve given up hope,” Garcetti said.

Camp proponents maintain that youngsters emerge with budding self-confidence, discipline, greater respect for authority figures and increased academic abilities due to camp schools.

Additionally, a typical camp stint is cheaper than a comparable California Youth Authority sentence, and camps also have a lower recidivism rate, according to Probation Department and Youth Authority statistics.

If the camps are closed as scheduled by mid-February, critics say that the Youth Authority could not handle the overload because it is already at almost 150% of capacity.

Camp officials and judges say there is little doubt about a rise in crime if the camps are shuttered.

“They will be going back to the same parents, the same neighborhoods, the same problems,” said Christine Diaz, director of Camp Scott, an all-female camp in Saugus. “You are talking about thousands of kids being released at one time.”