Youth Camps May Be Victims of Cuts

Los Angeles County is anticipating deep budget cuts this year that could force the closure of all 19 of its probation camps, wiping out the middle range of punishment and rehabilitation for delinquent teenagers.

Elimination of the camps would leave juvenile judges little choice but to send thousands of youths with criminal records back to their homes -- possibly endangering public safety -- or to the state’s youth prison system, where they would serve longer terms under harsher conditions.

The county’s budget crunch is directly tied to the state’s financial troubles. Faced with a colossal state budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed nearly $7 billion in spending cuts to health and welfare, education, transportation and other programs. Tucked into his long list was a $134-million reduction for crime prevention, treatment and incarceration programs for juvenile offenders. The cut is to take effect in October.

If state lawmakers approve the plan, Los Angeles County’s probation department would lose $82 million per year. It would take another $37-million hit under Schwarzenegger’s proposal to shift property taxes away from counties. All told, the department would lose almost a quarter of its funding.

No other county agency stands to lose such a large percentage of its budget, and officials say the cuts would compel them to lay off probation officers who supervise youth and adult offenders, as well as close the camps.

“I would have to cut the heart out of probation,” said Chief Probation Officer Richard Shumsky, a towering man with a soft spot for troubled youths. “It was like a body blow when they told me.”

At the same time, the county is grappling with other proposed budget cuts that would affect sheriff’s programs, jails, public beaches, parks and libraries. Officials acknowledged that, with so much on the chopping block this year, saving camps that try to heal wayward youths may be a tough sell.

“It’s not a sexy issue,” said Sharon Harper, the county’s chief budget deputy. “People, as a whole -- they don’t really care. They say, ‘Just lock ‘em up anywhere.’ ”

But sending juveniles to the state-run California Youth Authority costs more than keeping them in county-run probation camps. Each CYA ward costs the state about $60,000 per year, compared with the $38,343 annual price tag for each youngster housed in Los Angeles County probation camps, officials said.

California Youth Authority spokesman Julio Calderon said that his agency could hold more juveniles if probation camps closed, because counties would be billed for part of the expense. Thirty of the state’s 58 counties run probation camps or ranches for young offenders.

Other costs are less tangible. To a roomful of African American boys, all wards of Camp Kilpatrick in the sun-streaked Santa Monica Mountains, news that their camp might close brought an immediate and strong reaction.

“You’ve got a better opportunity here in camp than any other facility, where you’d be locked down all the time,” said Christopher, 18, who was sent here for nine months on a gun charge and now plays on the camp’s basketball team.

“In California Youth Authority, somebody’s going to try to tussle with you,” he said as the boys around him nodded. “If the judge tells you California Youth Authority, you break down and cry like a baby. Your life is over. That’s prison.”

“This camp was like a second chance,” agreed Clinton, a lean basketball player sent here after he failed to appear in court on a petty theft charge. “Some people go to college from here,” another boy added hopefully.

Since 1997, state funding for the camps has flowed through the federal welfare-to-work program called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. (The reasoning was that probation camps could help break the cycle of welfare dependence by transforming young offenders into productive members of society.) Last year, California lawmakers extended probation funding until October 2004 as they waited for Congress to reauthorize the temporary assistance program.

Now, amid signals that Congress may require states to do more to move welfare recipients into the workforce, Schwarzenegger wants to let the probation funding expire and redirect the money into CalWORKS, California’s welfare-to-work program, said H. D. Palmer, spokesman for the Department of Finance.

“Every indication we are getting,” Palmer said, is that federal lawmakers intend to tighten up work requirements. “We’re trying to get ahead of the curve.”

He said the state would still offer $100 million in juvenile crime-prevention grants to local jurisdictions. The funding shift would have the greatest effect in Los Angeles County. The county handles 22,000 delinquency cases per year in its juvenile court, which has the gloomy distinction of being the largest in the world.

Judges have a range of options for dealing with youths who have committed crimes. They can send low-level offenders home on probation or place them in a group home. They can remand others to a probation camp, an intermediate option for minors with multiple or more serious offenses. Or, as a last resort, judges can send teenagers to the California Youth Authority, which has been sued in federal court for alleged abuse of inmates.

The juvenile justice system is aimed at rehabilitating minors, and often it succeeds. In Los Angeles County, 74% of the youths in juvenile cases never return to court.

“Probation camps are absolutely vital in the juvenile justice system,” said David Steinhart, a Marin County attorney who specializes in juvenile justice. “I think probation has a good shot at restoring these funds, once legislators realize that, without the camps, juvenile offenders are going to be sprung free back into the community.”

Los Angeles County sends about 4,500 teenagers to the military-style probation camps each year. There, any signs of gang affiliation (or other hints of individuality) are erased as street clothes are exchanged for plain uniforms in earthy colors and stylish hairdos are shorn to bristles. Teenagers spend an average of six months at the camps. Much of the day is spent in school, but the camps also offer sports, arts and other programs.

If the camps closed, the county’s probation department would retain three juvenile halls, used primarily to house children before they appear in court. It would continue to investigate cases and supervise probationers, both children and adults, and it would still run some crime prevention and treatment programs.

“If we’re really serious about fighting crime, instead of putting all our resources in adults -- where 70% of them go back to crime anyway -- we should focus on the youth,” said Judge Philip Mautino, supervising judge of the county’s Los Padrinos Juvenile Court in Downey.

“To cripple our youth programs, we’ll just pay the price later.”