If California lawmakers accept the recommendations in a report released by the Little Hoover Commission this week, state prisons for juveniles will go out of existence by 2011.
That would be a good thing.
The report, "Juvenile Justice Reform," calls for replacing the state's antiquated and dangerous lockups for young criminals with regional and county facilities run by the counties. The idea makes sense both in terms of public safety and costs.
State prisons for youthful offenders have been an expensive failure. A lawsuit filed on behalf of juvenile inmates in 2003 documented horrific conditions in what was then called the California Youth Authority. Violence was rampant and lockdowns so common that educational or counseling programs could not operate effectively. Since then, most young criminals have been transferred to county programs, with state prisons reserved primarily for murderers and sex offenders.
Even so, it cost California $554 million in 2008 to incarcerate just 2,000 young criminals and supervise another 2,300 on state parole. Despite that extraordinarily high cost, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, already straining to house and provide for 170,000 adult inmates, has been unable to make the reforms to its juvenile facilities the courts have mandated.
So it's easy to see why the Little Hoover Commission recommends that CDCR get out of the juvenile justice business entirely and let counties take on the job of incarcerating and rehabilitating young criminals. Under the reforms envisioned, the state would establish an Office of Juvenile Justice to provide oversight, technical assistance and guidance to the counties, but the counties would run the programs.
It's hard to conceive of a juvenile justice system that would be more costly and less effective than the one now in place. Three of four youths who leave state-run prisons commit new crimes within three years of release. The changes the Little Hoover Commission recommends are long overdue.
