With a declining number of people in the juvenile justice system, the Santa Barbara County Probation Department is proposing to close the Los Prietos Boys Camp and build a treatment center in Santa Maria, with educational and vocational programs to serve the same population.
The Probation Department operates the Susan J. Gionfriddo Juvenile Justice Center (Santa Maria Juvenile Hall), which is a secured detention facility, and Los Prietos Boys Camp at 3900 Paradise Road on Los Padres National Forest land, a minimum-security facility with a County Education Office-run school, and probation-run programs on site.
The camp cost Probation about $4.6 million to operate in 2021, and that does not count the County Education Office expenses for the education program.
Most of the boys committed to Los Prietos are from North County communities, and it’s challenging to have family visits and engagement because of the remote location and lack of public transportation to Paradise Road, said Kim Shean of the Probation Department during a Thursday meeting to discuss the proposed transition.
The meeting was organized by the Probation Department and the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council as a “listening forum,” with a brief presentation on the proposal and a Q&A session for community members.
A Santa Maria location would create easier access for visits, home furloughs and family counseling, Shean said. It also would put the youths closer to community resources, volunteer organizations, employment opportunities and Allan Hancock College.
Shean said the proposal is to remodel one of the older Susan J. Gionfriddo Juvenile Justice Center (Juvenile Hall) buildings to make it more like a college dormitory to house the new treatment program, and when it’s done, move the staff and youths from the camp to the new facility.
She did not present a timeline for the transition.
“We’re not talking about bringing the kids from camp and putting them into Juvenile Hall,” Probation Chief Tanja Heitman said.
The facility would be on the same campus, since there are outdated, unused buildings available, but it would be a separate program run independently from the Juvenile Hall detention facility, she said in response to specific questions and concerns from community members about the proposal.
There are eight boys at the camp right now, and if the new program were ready today, they would move to the Santa Maria site and the same staff who work with them at the camp would come over and run the program, she added.
Heitman said the average number of juvenile justice system youths “has been a steady decline that has been in place well before the pandemic hit.”
She said there are the eight youths there now compared with about 40 in 2012-17.
“Unless state law changes in some unanticipated way, the population is unlikely to return to prior numbers,” Heitman said.
Heitman said the department is seeing increasing costs related to the declining population, and it is unable to offer the same level of programming or vocational training that it did when there were more youths at the camp.
Heitman also said that the new treatment unit would serve only males, as Los Prietos Boys Camp does.
“There are not enough female youth who are needing this type of out-of-home treatment to warrant having a robust program. It’s just not feasible for one or two girls,” Heitman said in response to a question about eligibility for the new program.
Some community members attending the virtual meeting, including former Los Prietos Boys Camp residents, had concerns that the peer relationship-building and culture of the camp wouldn’t transfer over to a facility in town on the Juvenile Hall campus.
Juvenile Hall detention is for more serious offenders than Boys Camp commitments, and community members — as well as Heitman — voiced their support for keeping that distinction.
Some other questions raised at the meeting were about the future of the forest land property if the camp is closed.
Probation Department staff said the current special-use permit with the U.S. Forest Service expires in December 2024. There are early discussions about a collaboration between the Fire and Probation departments to have trail-clearing, fire-prevention work and other outdoor wilderness based at the site for youth in probation programs, Heitman said.
The land is surrounded by recreational uses — such as campgrounds and trails — and any future use would have to be compatible with that, she noted.
Statewide Declining Population in Juvenile Justice System
Probation Department personnel believe that detention should be used sparingly and that youths should remain close to home in the least-restrictive setting, said Karyn Milligan, research and special projects manager.
There’s been a 76% decrease in incarcerated youths statewide in the past 20 years, she said, partly because of new risk assessments, detention screening and investing in diversion programs. The number of juveniles being supervised in probation programs is also declining.
The Probation Department did an audit of its camp population in 2017 and discovered that 57% of the youths there had misdemeanor offenses as their most serious offenses, which was “somewhat concerning,” Heitman said.
In addition, 63% of the youths had been committed to stay at the camp because of a technical violation (violating probation) versus a criminal offense.
That data dive also found that 74% of the youths were from North County communities, and that the population was younger than the current population. Now, most of the youths are committed to the camp for felony offenses, and they are all 15 to 17 years old, not 13 or 14.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.