Troubled Youth
Interventions for Troubled Youth (including Juvenile Justice and Foster Care)
Each year, there are over 200,000 arrests of juveniles in California. While many young people learn their lesson, too many offend again and again. Intensive family interventions are proven to prevent juveniles from re-offending. For example, the Functional Family Therapy program (FFT) cut re-arrests by participants in half, and saved $49,000 for every juvenile offender served.
Enacted in 2000, the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) provides a dedicated funding stream for local juvenile justice programs designed to curb juvenile crime, including intensive family interventions, after-school programs for at-risk teens, gang and truancy prevention, job training and diversion programs. JJCPA currently supports over 170 programs in 56 participating counties, and serves close to 100,000 at-risk and delinquent youth annually. According to the State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, non-participating youth were 22 percent more likely to be arrested than youth in JJCPA-funded programs. JJCPA funding is linked to the Citizens’ Option for Public Safety (COPS) program, which funds local law enforcement agencies for front-line public safety services.
However, the need for proven interventions for juvenile offenders far outpaces the supply of available funding. For example, in light of repeated budget cuts, current JJCPA funding falls far short of its original $121 million funding level in 2000-2001, without even taking into account the increased cost of living since then. As a result, many counties have been forced to cut the number of JJCPA programs available and/or reduce the amount of services provided in ongoing programs. Moreover, only a few counties are implementing proven intensive family interventions: at most, only 4 percent of eligible young offenders are receiving one of these proven programs.
Full funding of JJCPA is especially critical given the recent enactment of juvenile justice reform through SB 81, which shifted many juvenile offenders from state to county custody and provided new funding to counties to address their increased responsibilities. To be successful, juvenile justice reform needs to build on the success of existing interventions, rather than merely compensate for cuts to existing programs. In fact, the Administration cited the success of JJCPA in framing its reform proposal, crediting it with deterring “countless thousands” of juveniles from ending up in custody.
Permanent extension of the Vehicle License Fee set-aside for public safety programs is essential to protect ongoing JJCPA funding.
We also support continued full funding of SB 81’s juvenile justice reform to enable counties to effectively serve increased number of offenders resulting from SB 81’s realignment.
AB 12 (Beall) would extend foster care benefits for youth until age 21, instead of age 18 currently, and allow California to access federal matching funds for this purpose. Foster youth are at high risk of becoming involved in the criminal justice system, both as juveniles and as adults. Research shows that within the first two to four years after aging out of the foster care system, 20 percent of foster youth will be incarcerated. Effective services for foster youth—especially between ages 18 and 21 once they age out of the foster care system and are left to fend for themselves—can help steer them away from crime. Comparison research suggests that offering services to foster youth through age 21, rather than through 18, can reduce arrests significantly.
Many counties use a portion of their Mental Health Services Act/Proposition 63 funding to serve youth in the juvenile justice system or at risk of juvenile justice involvement, including several counties that use it for evidence-based practices proven to reduce crime. The voters already rejected a ballot initiative that would have redirected some Proposition 63/Mental Health Services Act funding to the general fund.
