To: Sonoma County Board of Supervisors
Department or Agency Name(s): Probation Department
Staff Name and Phone Number: David Koch, Chief Probation Officer (707) 565-2732
Vote Requirement: Informational Only
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Juvenile Justice Realignment Block Grant Annual Plan
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Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Review the Juvenile Justice Realignment Block Grant Annual Plan (“Plan”) for Fiscal Year 21-22. The Plan addresses SB 823, which phases out sentencing to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) system (state-run youth correctional facility), and instead provides local resources to counties for supervision, program services, or detention to youth who would otherwise be held at DJJ for the term of their commitment.
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Executive Summary:
This report presents for the information of the Board and general public the Fiscal Year 2021-22 Juvenile Justice Realignment Block Grant’s Annual Plan, and provides an update to the Probations Department’s temporary un-occupation of Juvenile Camp. This Plan has been developed by a sub-committee of the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council and outlines intended programming and target population as a result of SB 823. Per the legislation, and similar to the structure of AB109 Public Safety Realignment, the Plan is intended to inform the Board’s budget decisions regarding this annual funding allocation (see Fiscal Summary below).
Most costs associated with SB 823 will be fully realized in Fiscal Year 22-23 and beyond after the full closure of DJJ as youth otherwise committed to same, will serve their term locally. Costs for Fiscal Year 21-22 will be impacted to the extent that youth are diverted locally after July 1, 2021. These youth, committed for serious or violent offense(s) and having higher rehabilitative needs, will require more deeply saturated individualized rehabilitation efforts. Efforts to design meaningful and successful programming are underway; including the Sonoma County Juvenile Court, Behavioral Health, and other system partners and community stakeholders in the planning process.
Discussion:
SB 823, known as DJJ Realignment, was signed into law in September 2020 with a commitment of annual funding, and a phased out closure of state run youth correctional facilities. The closure of all DJJ facilities is set for June 2023. The intent of SB 823 is to:
• Keep system involved youth connected to their families and communities. Evidence has shown that youth are more successful, with lower recidivism rates when more prepared to transition to their own community.
• Ensure youth receive age appropriate treatment while closer to home.
• For counties to use evidence-based and promising practices/programs that improve outcomes for youth and public safety while also reducing the transfer of youth into the adult system.
• Ensure dispositions are in the least restrictive appropriate environment, reduce and then eliminate racial and ethnic disparities and reduce the use of confinement in the juvenile justice system by utilizing community-based responses and interventions.
• End the practice of placing youth in custodial or confinement facilities that are operated by private entities whose primary business is the custodial confinement of adults or youth.
• End placements of justice system-involved youth in out of state facilities that do not appropriately address programming, service, safety and other needs.
The bill transfers responsibility of youthful offenders to local jurisdictions, which will include both secure detention and community-based treatment and rehabilitation services. It also delays the transfer of the Division of Juvenile Justice into the California Health and Human Services Agency, Department of Youth and Community Restoration (YCR) until June 30, 2021.
This legislation, similar to other “Realignment” initiatives enacted by the State, phases the closure of California’s Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) and instead provides resources to counties for supervision and service delivery to youth in conflict with the law.
Specifically, SB 823:
§ Ends intake into DJJ on July 1, 2021, except for cases where the youth may be tried in adult court;
§ Creates a new state agency, the Office of Youth and Community Restoration (OYCR) to provide oversight and accountability of the realigned system;
§ Allocates $209 million in block grant funding to counties ;
§ Raises the age of local jurisdiction and confinement to age 25 for serious cases; and
§ Requires the legislature to establish a new sentencing track for realigned population by March 2021.
These realignment funds require an annual plan (Attachment #1) and the creation of a subcommittee within the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council to oversee plan development and implementation. Target population youth will range in age from 14 to 25, adjudicated as wards of the court with offenses committed in subdivision (b) of WIC Section 707 or Penal Code Section 290.008. The nature of these offenses are serious and violent and include rape, murder, kidnapping, arson, assault, and torture. Attachment #2 to this item provides demographic information on the DJJ population, by regions established by the Chief Probation Officers of California (CPOC). Sonoma County is in the Bay Region.
The Plan addresses: in-custody mental health programming, family therapy, specialized treatment needs (i.e. sex offender treatment), career technical education and educational attainment, and discharge planning and re-entry services. The Plan contains the following major components:
• Realigned target population, number of youth served, offense history, and demographic data:
o Between 5 and 10 Sonoma County youth, moderate to high risk to re-offend, primarily male, Hispanic or White, committed serious or violent crimes, 17 and 18 year olds, with an additional 12 to 16 out-of-county youth
• The facilities, programs, placements, services/providers, supervision, etc. that will be provided to the target population
o A safe and secure modern housing facility,
§ Based on classification, risk level, individual needs, and safety of the resident and other youth detainees,
o Explore the use of the Sonoma County Probation Camp facility as a step down option for realigned youth transitioning back into the community, to provide:
§ Additional rehabilitative treatment and services in a less secure setting, and opportunities to positively influence personal, social, physical, mental health, education, vocational, career, re-entry, or independent living skills
o Use of community based organizations for:
§ Drug and alcohol treatment
§ Aggression Replacement Training (ART)
§ Trauma focused and gender responsive
§ Transitional services
§ Evening Reporting Center
§ Mentoring
o Services will also provide opportunities to engage families, including focus on the Child-Family Team approach.
• Funds will address the following areas of need:
o Mental health, Sex offender treatment, Support program or services aimed at promoting healthy adolescent development, Family counseling and engagement, Reentry, Evidence-based, promising, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive programming.
§ The Probation Department has current contracts with community-based organizations or individuals providing evidence based or promising practices/treatment in custody and in the community for:
• Sex offender treatment; group and individual
• Aggression Replacement Training
• Drug and alcohol counseling and treatment
• Individual counseling; trauma and sexual abuse
• Positive Parenting Program (PPP)
• Violence prevention and Trauma counseling for individuals and families
• Healthy Relationships
• Accountability Circles
• Guiding People Successfully, and
• My Strength
§ The list is not all inclusive of current services provided to youth in detention and supervision, and will be expanded with the addition of former DJJ committed youth, youth from Sonoma or other counties, and will target the special/more intensive needs of the target population.
• The plan supports the local retention of realigned youth in lieu of driving them further into the adult system.
o The Sonoma County Probation Department plans to facilitate the retention of the target population by providing a safe and secure facility that promotes and provides rehabilitative treatment designed to reduce recidivism; provide opportunities to address personal, social, physical, mental health, educational, career technical training, and independent living needs; and prepare them for a successful re-entry to their communities.
o A key component of successful re-entry is ensuring that justice-involved youth are housed closer to their families and within their communities while they receive age-appropriate treatment, and allowing the family to engage in treatment concurrently. Family and pro-social community ties play a large role in rehabilitation planning for each resident.
• Regional agreements or arrangements supported by the grant
o Sonoma County Probation Department has the capacity to offer our facility and programming to other Counties wishing to send their realigned youth to our County. We will contract with these counties through cooperative agreements and provide them with written material and brochures describing the programming offered.
• Data for served youth will be collected along with outcomes, including how those outcome measures will be utilized for future programs and interventions supported by the grant funds.
o Data collection for program performance will use the Sonoma County Probation Department’s data information systems as well as data from community based Organizations in accordance with performance reporting requirements in contracts.
o Outcome measures will include recidivism, entry into the Adult justice system, measures of racial and gender equity, and changes in thinking, skills, and connection to supports for reentry and independent living.
Youth Programs and Facilities Grant Program
The BSCC set aside $9.6M for one-time grant funding to provide resources related to infrastructure and improvements to develop local continuum of care for justice-involved youth. The grant consists of two funding opportunities; all counties are eligible for a minimum amount of funding based on population (small, medium, large). As a medium county, Sonoma County is eligible for approximately $82,000. The BSCC also allocated funding for five $1 million competitive grants, with points awarded based on a county’s willingness to accept realigned youth from other counties, i.e. a “Hub”. Sonoma County is pursuing both the smaller allocation grant and the $1 million competitive grant. These funds may be spent over the four years of the grant period and would be used to build service capacity and enhance safety within the Juvenile Hall, as well as in the community. Sonoma County Probation is in the process of developing its grant application in the hopes of securing funding for designing or retooling existing resources in order to meet the needs of youth who would otherwise be committed to DJJ. Probation submitted its application on May 12th, 2021.
The Chief Probation Officer has been approached by several other California counties interested in contracting for services in our secure Juvenile Hall facility, either because they no longer operate a local Juvenile Hall, or do not have the internal capacity to develop the type of robust treatment program this realigned population requires. Creating a type of regional hub facility bodes well for Sonoma County in the grant process, and to sustain an ideal in-custody census count for effective treatment and population management. If successful in the grant process, the Department will return to the Board with the necessary programmatic and budgetary actions, as well as any relevant agreements with neighboring counties to provide bed space.
Temporary Un-Occupancy of Juvenile Camp
As discussed in the Board item of October 20, 2020, Probation continues to plan for use of the Probation Camp facility for justice-involved youth. Following the temporary un-occupancy of Camp on January 1, 2021, the Camp staff were transferred to Juvenile Hall to support minimum mandated staffing ratios and reduce overtime costs during a time of extremely high protected staff leave use due to Covid-19. A small team of 4.0 FTE’s dedicated to the Camp Products Program (woodwork and welding) remain at Camp, and is temporarily overseeing Supervised Adult Crews in the production of items for sale, in order to maintain revenue to this vital vocational program.
The Department is exploring a collaboration with community-based organizations to bring in at-risk youth or other youth who could benefit from preventative services by learning vocational skills using the welding and construction shops. This option will be beneficial so that Camp can serve a much-needed population during its un-occupancy until the population increases and it can be used as a detention facility again.
The Sonoma County Regional Parks Sign Shop is now located at Probation Camp as a result of their shop being destroyed during the 2020 Glass Fire. Both Departments intend upon the re-occupancy of Probation Camp, that Regional Parks staff will remain on the campus and work with youth on job readiness programs in the shop as part of the array of services.
The Probation Camp has become a valuable location for Department trainings, due to its vast outdoor space and versatility. Having this location available has become essential in meeting training requirements mandated by the Standards for Training in Corrections (STC) and greatly reduce training costs during the pandemic.
The Department continues to develop a longer-term program for the Probation Camp property, exploring both in-custody and daytime programs designed to best serve Sonoma County youth and families. We will return to your Board with any updates or budgetary adjustments necessary to implement these program changes.
Prior Board Actions:
10-20-2020: The Board authorized the Chief Probation Officer to engage in the necessary administrative and programmatic steps to temporarily un-occupy the Sonoma County Probation Camp.
Fiscal Summary
|
Expenditures |
FY 21-22 Requested |
FY22-23 Projected |
FY 23-24 Projected |
|
Budgeted Expenses |
294,512 |
872,420 |
1,445,337 |
|
Additional Appropriation Requested |
|
|
|
|
Total Expenditures |
294,512 |
872,420 |
1,445,337 |
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
|
|
General Fund/WA GF |
|
|
|
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State/Federal |
294,512 |
872,420 |
1,445,337 |
|
Fees/Other |
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Use of Fund Balance |
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Contingencies |
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Total Sources |
294,512 |
872,420 |
1,445,337 |
Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
The immediate fiscal impact associated with housing and treating realigned youth has been included in the FY 21-22 Recommended Budget. The state has allocated $294,512 to Sonoma County to enhance local services for these youth based on average DJJ commitments and youth census data for the county. The ongoing FY 22-23 and FY 23-24 projected state allocations in the table represent estimates generated by the state and will be adjusted annually once actual allocations are known.
The Department is pursuing one-time grant funding to address infrastructure and training needs to prepare for future commitments. As commitments to DJJ facilities are diverted to county responsibility beginning July 21, 2021, local costs will begin to increase as populations trend to normalize at approximately 5.5 average daily bed occupancy at Juvenile Hall in lieu of DJJ. As noted above, it is extremely likely that the Department will enter into agreements with surrounding counties to house their youth. A rate structure for such partnerships is currently in negotiation, to be in place early FY 2021-22. The Department will return to the Board in FY 2021-22 with any actions necessary to recognize revenue and adjust expenditures accordingly.
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Staffing Impacts: |
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Position Title (Payroll Classification) |
Monthly Salary Range (A-I Step) |
Additions (Number) |
Deletions (Number) |
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Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
None
Attachments:
#1: SB 823 Juvenile Justice Realignment Plan for FY 21-22
#2: SB 823 Pop Overview and Local Planning
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
None