Monday, September 21, 2009

Blog Post #2: Is Closing Down DJJ Facilities the Answer?

Economically speaking, the state is not doing well right now. Among other revenue-generating and cost-reducing measures, the state sales tax has increased, state universities have raised tuition across all campuses and state employees have been forced to take monthly furlough days. When the economic conditions are what they are and the state budget is in this position of uncertainty, it is up to the citizens and state legislators to determine which state agencies and programs are worthy of the resources allocated to them. With an annual budget exceeding $380 million [1] and its operations under a court-issued consent decree [2], the merit of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) has come into question.

Currently, DJJ is operating under a consent decree resulting from the 2004 case Farrell v. Cate, which found the now defunct California Youth Authority (CYA) to be abusive, completely mismanaged and ineffective at providing services. However, four years later at an October 2008 hearing, Judge Jon Tigar, presiding over the Farrell v. Cate consent decree, stated that, “DJJ is in gross violation of the Court’s order” and “DJJ’s progress measured against any reasonable deadline has been inadequate” [2]. Coupled with the opinion of the Court, other groups have called for the closing of the six remaining DJJ corrections facilities and transferring all juvenile services to county probation departments. According to the nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission (LHC) and Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), such an action would remove the state’s obligations under the Farrell v. Cate consent decree and allow for the reinvestment of DJJ’s $383 million annual budget towards other state programs [3], [4]. But would the counties be able to handle the increase in population if all DJJ facilities were to be closed?

As of March 31, 2009, DJJ housed 1,637 wards [5] at an estimated cost of approximately $234,029 per ward [6]. According to the Corrections Standards Authority (CSA), by the end of 2007, there were 2,876 vacant detention beds throughout the state’s 58 counties on any given day, more than enough to house the entire DJJ population [7]. Based on the Corrections Standards Authority estimate of $60-70 in daily costs, the cost for housing a juvenile in a county institution would range from $22,000 to $25,000 per year, representing a significant cost reduction from the current yearly cost of housing a juvenile in one of DJJ’s facilities.

With the opportunity to eliminate its responsibilities under the Farrell v. Cate consent decree and annually save the state hundreds of millions of dollars, California legislators would be wise to reexamine the usefulness of maintaining the six juvenile correctional facilities operated by the Division of Juvenile Justice.

Sources:

[1] Macallair, D., Males, M., & McCracken, C. (May 2009). Legislative Policy Study. Closing California’s Division of Juvenile Facilities: An Analysis of County Institutional Capacity, 1-25. San Francisco, CA: Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. http://www.cjcj.org/files/closing_californias_DJF.pdf

[2] Farrell v. Cate (formally Farrell v. Allen), Case No. RG 03079344 (filed in Cal. Sup. Ct. 2004), County of Alameda. Consent decree issued 2004. Court order issued 2008.

[3] Little Hoover Commission. (2008). Juvenile Justice Reform: Realigning Responsibilities, Report#192, July 2008. Sacramento, CA: The Little Hoover Commission Reports.

[4] Legislative Analyst’s Office. (2009). Criminal Justice Realignment. 2009-10 Budget Analysis Series. Sacramento, CA: LAO Publications.

[5] Division of Juvenile Justice (2009) Characteristics of Population. December 2008. Sacramento, CA: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Reports_Research/docs/Dec2008-Characteristics.pdf

[6] Department of Finance. (2009) Corrections and Rehabilitation. 5225 Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, California Budget 2009-10. Sacramento, CA: State of California, Department of Finance.

[7] Corrections Standards Authority. (2007). Juvenile Detention Profile Survey (4th Quarter). Sacramento, CA: California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, Facilities Standards and Operations Division. http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Divisions_Boards/CSA/FSO

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2 comments:

  1. HARVEYSONOctober 6, 2009 at 2:30 PM

    Interesting piece here. As a former ward of the CYA, I returned some years later as an educator at the Chino Heman G. Stark Correctional Facility. Also spent 16 years as an adjunct Professor in Administration of Justice at a local Community College. I have advocated for the closing of DJJ for several years now, believing that it is costly, Administratively top-heavy, and a bad use of resources when the Counites could do a much better and more secure job of holding youthful offenders accountable. Those remaining wards who may be considered too violent for County Probation lockups could be housed seperately in a CDCR facility. The CDCR facility in Tehachapi houses around 100 youthful prisoners who have been convicted adults.
    Please check out my recent commentary for Captiol Weekly.
    http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?1&_c=ybl7pak7hatvu5&xid=yb3sng0rcllpm9&done=.yb5fwluw2k8s7h&_ce=1254863993.503b2d031b89486a15260156cba633e3#
    Cheers,
    John

    ReplyDelete
  2. svatneJanuary 10, 2011 at 1:37 PM

    As a former CYA psychologist I watched the department slide down hill through the late 1990's and early 2000's. It's eventual take over by CDC simple accelerated the degradation of the delivery of medical and mental health services to the wards.
    The impossibility of operating functional treatment programs in a system dominated by CCPOA doomed the department even before the so called "sliding scale" legislation precipitated the rapid decline in population in the 90's.
    It is time to close the doors and use county and Department of Mental Health resources instead.

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