Probation Camp Funding Bill Signed

Linking his tough new stance on juvenile crime with maintaining the county’s youth probation camps, Gov. Pete Wilson signed a bill in Burbank Friday to keep the camps open and “prevent the release of 1,400 teen-age thugs.”

At a news conference at Burbank Airport, Wilson said the county’s system of 19 camps are important for deterrance of juvenile crime.

“Los Angeles, like many towns and cities . . . seems to be under a siege of juvenile crime,” Wilson said. “It’s gotten so bad that the law-abiding can’t walk down the street to church. . . . These teen thugs have no respect for their fellow citizens.”

“The most practical solution is to keep juvenile thugs off the streets,” he said, adding that “juvenile camps keep juveniles off the streets and out of neighborhoods.”

Wilson’s signature ends more than eight months of effort by Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) to fund camps statewide.

Los Angeles, with more camps than any other county, will receive about $19 million of the $33 million.

Juvenile probation camps house offenders under 18 convicted of a wide range of crimes.

Villaraigosa said a visit to a probation camp last year gave him a different perspective on the issue.

“I got to feel deep down in my heart the story for some of these young kids,” he said. “It’s the same story I had growing up . . . no father, dropped out of high school, but waiting to turn it around.”

For months, the county’s camps have been on the brink of closure because the cash-strapped Los Angeles County government could not afford to keep them open, and the state had failed to chip in.

Tuesday, the state Legislature gave final approval to the funding bill and a second measure that allows counties to contribute less to general relief and other programs.

Wilson and other Republicans wanted both bills on the governor’s desk before he signed the camp bill. Passage was further delayed when many Democrats balked after Republicans attached the general relief provision to the camp-funding bill.

At one point, Villaraigosa withdrew his own bill.

Wilson thanked Villaraigosa and Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills), also an early supporter of camp funding, “for their patience.”

“This bill,” Wilson said, “should have been on my desk a lot sooner.”

But Wilson’s focus was on youth crime, and he reiterated several points he discussed in his recent State of the State speech, including trying more juveniles in adult courts; expanding the size of juvenile detention facilities statewide by $150 million, and allowing a check-off box on state income tax returns providing 1% of taxes for local law enforcement agencies.

“If we take these steps we’ll be sending a message that these behaviors will not go ignored as they have been under previous juvenile justice systems,” Wilson said. That they will not go unpunished. The punishment will be serious.”

Richard Shumsky, head of the probation officer’s union, said Wilson’s signature saved 1,000 employees from layoffs or demotions that were scheduled to take effect Friday.