Young Inmates Given Job Skills

Sixteen-year-old Tim, who has been in and out of the juvenile justice system since he was 13, is learning to repair computers.

His 18-year-old classmate Martel, who’s serving time for receiving stolen property, is learning how to create Web sites and set up computer networks.

Both are juvenile offenders serving time at Camp Kilpatrick in Malibu, where the Los Angeles County Office of Education has instituted a new theme-based academic system.

Over the next few months, the county will roll out the system at all 19 camps, offering the 22,000 juvenile wards more academically challenging classes or preparing them for jobs, including fire rescue, computer repair, visual arts and culinary arts.

The initiative marks a change in direction for county schools, which had a traditional high school curriculum offering little vocational training.

The county Office of Education, which oversees the camps’ instructional programs, is using Kilpatrick as a model because of its successful decade-long experience using sports and technology activities to reach youths and foster their interests in developing life and job skills, county officials said.

The specialized themes will be used in classes as well as after-school workshops and training sessions. In some programs, students, most from 14 to 18, will earn certification to become eligible for jobs or get more extensive preparation for college entrance exams.

“Theme-based camps take in school instruction and integrate it with after-school and weekend activities so that the young people get a richer experience,” said Larry Springer, director of juvenile courts and community schools for the Office of Education. “We have only a short time to capture these kids’ imaginations and get them focused on what the rest of their lives are going to be about.”

In addition to psychological and behavioral evaluations done when juvenile offenders are processed, the youths will be assessed academically to determine which of the camps best meets their scholastic needs and interests.

“It won’t work with every kid,” Chief Probation Officer Richard Shumsky said. “Some kids will go back to their old environment and slip back into the same conduct [that landed them in the camps]. But, for a lot of kids, it’s mind opening.”

Ten themes will be implemented, with as many as four at any one camp. They include science and technology; independent living; college preparation; music and visual arts; vocational training; agribusiness; computer technology; fire; and sports. Two camps, Mendenhall and Munz in Lake Hughes, will have a regional theme, which will allow them to develop programs in partnership with area businesses and nonprofit groups.

Every camp also will have a more intensive literacy program, because, as Shumsky put it, “too many kids come into the system not knowing how to read.”

The county Probation Department has received a $100,000 grant from Verizon Corp. to establish libraries at all county camps and juvenile halls, said Juanita Stanley, program manager for Operation Read.

The Probation Department, which runs the juvenile camps on an $85-million annual budget, can implement the theme-based system without much extra funding, said Shumsky, who added that he hopes to form more partnerships with area community colleges to offer some of the courses.

The county Office of Education might also apply for grants to augment the camp funding, Springer said.

Besides Camp Kilpatrick, four others already have begun to integrate the themes: Glenn Rockey in San Dimas, Scudder in Saugus, Routh in Tujunga and Paige in La Verne.

By July 1, the other 14 will do so, said Margo Minecki, a spokeswoman for the Office of Education.

Two years ago, Kilpatrick turned what was once a small video editing workshop open to a handful of detainees into a six-class technology program offering certification for jobs in computer repair and system networking, instructor Roger Espinosa said.

“Now I know how to take a computer apart, put one together, set up the Internet,” said Kilpatrick technology student Tim, whose last name cannot be used because he is a ward of the court. “This is what got me to decide what I want to do.”

“I pretty much know how to build a new [computer] system,” added his classmate, Martel, who hopes to go on to college.