State Grant to Assist New Anti-Gang Program in Oxnard

TIMES STAFF WRITER

OXNARD--South Oxnard will benefit from a $4.5-million state grant that will pay for a pilot program aimed at turning youths away from gangs and delinquency.

The California Board of Corrections awarded the first grant of its kind to the Ventura County Corrections Services Agency this week to pay for the three-year program.

Calling it “cutting edge work,” supporters say the South Oxnard Challenge Project will identify youthful offenders and attempt to change their lives using a mix of approaches, including positive involvement with police, probation officers and community-based organizations.

Another aspect of the program will have nonviolent offenders confronted by their victims and by their neighbors, urging them to become responsible members of the community.

“That community-oriented aspect of the program is what is so attractive to me,” said neighborhood activist Pat Simmons.

South Oxnard was selected because it has one of the county’s highest juvenile crime rates--more than 225 incidents during a 12-month period in 1995 and 1996, including six homicides and 11 drive-by shootings, officials said.

“It’s about time that someone recognized we had a problem here,” said Simmons, a member of a neighborhood group.

Although overall crime rates both locally and nationally have reached all-time lows, the rate of juvenile crime--especially violent crime--has increased everywhere, said Oxnard Police Chief Harold Hurtt.

Law enforcement officials fear that if something is not done to turn youthful offenders away from criminal behavior, they will become hard-core criminals by the time they reach adulthood, Hurtt said.

“We cannot keep applying the same type of methods that we’ve used in the past to deal with crime and expect something new,” he said. “This is something different and I really believe it will eventually be emulated not only elsewhere in California but nationally.”

The county’s Corrections Services Agency plans to use the $4.52 million to hire more probation officers, additional mental health workers and counselors to work with Oxnard offenders, said Calvin Remington, the agency’s deputy director.

A portion of the money will also be used to hire an additional police officer to work with the program, which likely will be housed at the South Oxnard Community Center at Bard Street and Saviers Road, Remington said.

Other participants in the project include the city’s recreation department and El Concilio, a community organization that operates after-school programs for youth who are at risk of dropping out of school or joining gangs.

“Essentially, it’s a way to try and keep these kids out of eventually going to prison,” Remington said.

In its first year, the program is expected to serve about 150 juveniles--both those on probation and those considered to be at-risk of committing crimes. By the end of the third year, the project should be able to handle more than 300 children, Remington said.

Participants must sign statements acknowledging that they will take responsibility for their actions. In exchange, each youth in the program will be set up with a mentor. The youth will work in after-school programs as a way to make amends for their crimes. They also will have the opportunity to participate in recreation activities and tutoring.

“It will not only hold them accountable, but it will also give them the opportunity to change,” Remington said.