Juvenile programs on the chopping block

San Mateo County Juvenile Division Director Tony Orazem knows it will be a difficult road ahead for his department if Governor Schwarzenegger signs the budget.

This is because there are 13 programs in San Mateo County funded by Juvenile Probation and Camps program grants. However, with a simple signature from the governor, that could all change.

“A lot of these (programs) will be impacted and some of these with a 10 percent cut may not be able to survive,” Orazem said.

The Juvenile Probation and Camps programs are one of the many parts of the Corrections and Rehabilitation budget on the chopping block. In 2005, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 139 allocating funds to all 58 California counties to support county probation services targeting at-risk youth, juvenile offenders and families of those youth. Funding for these programs would be cut by 10 percent across the board—averaging more than $20 million in cuts.

Orazem said he feels these programs are crucial for juveniles who are at risk of offending.

The programs provide services to about 5,600 juveniles, he said. These services include counseling, parenting programs, youth enrichment programs, bilingual services and mental health services. The probation camps programs also work closely with the local boys and girls clubs, he said.

Orazem said all the programs the San Mateo department offers have been proven successful.

“There’s been a 79 percent completion for Camp Glenwood,” he said. “That’s pretty high.”

Orazem said if you have $10,000 program and you cut part of the funding, those juveniles will not get services.

However, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation press secretary Seth Unger disagrees.

He said some of these programs may have to cut back services and juveniles will be able to find help elsewhere.

“There are still programs underway,” Unger said. “All that will continue.”

However, Unger is not specific about what programs are in the making. He said the state still feels a deep significance to have these programs at the local level but at the same time two California juvenile facilities are already closing because of low enrollment.

Josie Slonski, public information officer for the El Paso De Robles juvenile facility, said the population in that facility has declined in the last months. El Paso De Robles is funded by the Juvenile Probation and Camps program.

Slonski said the facility have been transferring juveniles and employees to different camps weekly to prepare for the close. Slonski says there will be layoffs as a result of the facility closing.

The 20-month early release of inmates, who are non-serious, non-violent and non-sex offenders, results in more than 4,000 layoffs, Unger said. The layoffs stem from a declining population of “wards” or juvenile inmates that occupy these facilities.

Unger said 70 percent of the corrections budget comes from the salaries of employees. The state would need to layoff employees to achieve savings.

“In this budget crisis, we have to make some cuts,” Unger said.

Other huge cuts include the governor’s proposed idea of summary parole where non-serious offenders will have minimal parole that involves no active supervision. Unger said this will also save the department $97.9 million in the future.

Orazem said their division is getting ready for potential slashes. He said they have been holding meetings to figure out how to allocate sources and make the hard calls. However, they have not made a decision.

“We’ve pretty much been operating as frugal as we can,” he said. “There’s not much else that we can cut.

He also said there is nowhere for these juveniles to go to get the kinds of services these programs provide.

“When it comes to mental health, and a lot of these kids would classify as mental health cases, I’m not sure they would go anywhere,” Orazem said. “They would just sort of float free until they did something that would qualify them for a higher level of service.”

Sheriff’s Deputy Jodi Mendoca oversees the Sacramento County Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction Grant Program. She said the public has overlooked the offenders for too long. Her program also might go under if the budget passes. It is primarily for adults, but she said she can see the programs do positive changes for the people involved in it.

Mendoca said her program just started at the beginning of March and they only have three offenders enrolled. She has seen a great deal of transformation in them.

Mendoca said their first offender was homeless, never took a shower, never changed his clothes and was afraid to take off his nap sack. He was afraid to leave the downtown area and yet, he made huge transformation in the past month.

She said now he can get on the light-rail and ride down their center just to say hi even when he is not required. Mendoca said since then, he also has not committed any crimes and he is clean. He would lose that confidence and that would be sad, Mendoca said.

“To just cut it completely, I think it’s injustice,” she said.

Mendoca said she has been working with the offenders in the community for a long time. Their attitudes are that the programs exist for them. If the programs are cut, they believe the public does not care about them anyway.

“The offenders think, ‘You know, people don’t really care. Whatever the flavor of the month is, then they’ll fund it for as long as they feel like it,’” she said.

Unger, on the other hand, said the governor is still looking at all options, including an alternative plan from the Legislative Analyst Office, which does not include cutting the Juvenile Probation and Camps programs.

Orazem also said he is not sure the public is even aware of the juvenile program cuts because it is not broadcasted like other big issues.

“The schools get pretty high profile publicity in the paper but when it comes to corrections and probation it's usually low profile stuff,” he said.

But it's low profile stuff that matters, Orazem said.

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