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A decision to shutter California’s juvenile incarceration facilities has the Del Norte County Probation Department trying to figure out where, and how, to house the youth that would formerly have been the state’s responsibility.

But it’s not just a Del Norte County problem and it’s not just a probation department issue, Chief Probation Officer Lonnie Reyman told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Wednesday.

“We as a community and Humboldt County as a community, Siskiyou County as a community, we’re on the hook — responsible for these kids,” he said. “It’s gotta be a whole holistic countywide response rather than just, ‘Hey, probation, deal with this.’”

Under State Senate Bill 823, signed into law in September, California Department of Juvenile Justice prisons will no longer accept serious and violent juvenile offenders beginning in July of this year, according to Reyman. The facilities will close entirely in July 2023, he said.

As a result, Del Norte County has until July 2021 to form a plan that addresses the resources it has, the number of youth that would qualify as serious and violent juvenile offenders and what they plan to do with those who would have been committed to DJJ custody, Reyman said.

“That plan is going to outline, likely, the direction we’re going to find them an appropriate custody commitment outside the county,” he said.

Del Norte’s plan will come before the county Board of Supervisors for approval. Counties will receive about $125,000 per year per any juvenile offender that is committed to their custody. According to Reyman, that’s the state’s estimation of current spending at DJJ.

The Department of Juvenile Justice is currently under the umbrella of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. In his January 2020 budget proposal, Gov. Gavin Newsom called for realigning DJJ under the California Department of Social Services. But, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that plan didn’t work out, Reyman said.

In August, a re-written form of SB 823 was passed by the state Senate and Assembly and was signed into law Sept. 30, 2020. According to Reyman, instead of realigning DJJ under Social Services, SB 823 dissolved it entirely. Starting in July, youth that would have been committed to DJJ facilities are now a county responsibility, Reyman said.

Reyman pointed out that youth sentenced to state DJJ prisons are those whose offenses may include robbery, arson, assault, sexual assault and murder. About 700 youth are in DJJ prisons statewide, he said. In Del Norte County, about 30 youth in the last 10 years have committed serious enough offenses to have been sentenced to DJJ facilities, Reyman said.

“We had one in 2007 and we had one last year,” he told the Outpost.

Del Norte County Juvenile Hall has an average daily population of about seven or eight youth each year, Reyman said. But there is a different criteria for housing children that have committed an offense serious enough for them to be sentenced to a DJJ prison.

Reyman also noted that since jurisdictional age for juvenile offenders goes up to age 25, it’s possible to have to figure out housing for a 12-year-old and a 21-year-old.

Reyman used Del Norte’s 2020 DJJ case — a youth who had committed rape-in-concert — as an example.

“It would be possible that we could house our juvenile population like that 12 year old and then also maybe in a different unit house this other population of youth that are much older or young adults,” he said. “For me, that causes some serious concerns regarding the safety and security. We’re a small juvenile hall. We have fairly limited resources and to try and staff our facility in such a way that we can keep those populations separate so I don’t have a 21-year-old kid intermingling with a 12-year-old kid — that’s difficult for us if not impossible.”

There’s also finding the staff necessary for the programs DJJ incarcerated youth need, Reyman said, a difficult prospect in tiny Del Norte County.

“That one kid, the rape-in-concert case, I need to provide him sex offender treatment,” he said. “I need to likely provide him educational services. I’m going to need to provide him groups and programs and things that hopefully can change the way he looks at the world, interacts with people and change the underlying behaviors that got him where he is right now. We just don’t have those kinds of resources locally.”

Neither do many Northern California counties. Reyman, who chairs the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council, a regional organization made up of 14 counties, said only six of those counties have juvenile halls. One, Colusa County, has a facility that also serves nearby counties. These counties predominantly rural with limited resources like Del Norte, Reyman said.

Working with the California State Association of Counties, CSAC, and its rural caucus, probation chiefs are trying to form a statewide consortium that will allow counties to pool their resources to house juvenile offenders.

One of the things the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council is discussing is whether a portion of that $125,000 per youth per year could be used for those that qualify for DJJ commitment but are on probation, Reyman said. A consortium would help make that determination, he said.

“It helps counties like us who really aren’t going to be able to house our own youth — we’ll be putting them in a solitary confinement situation because we have one kid every 13 years,” he said. “A consortium helps find appropriate places for counties like us, counties like Siskiyou who doesn’t have a juvenile hall at all. Those are the big challenges. If we can figure out how to provide equitable services for kids, we can change their behavior in the long term.”

According to Reyman, the proposed consortium needs to be in place by July 1 when DJJ facilities stop accepting prisoners.
DJJ was created out of the former California Youth Authority in 2007, and, according to Reyman progress had been made at the local level.

Reyman added that the SB 823 that Newsom signed into law on Sept. 30, 2020 was the result of a “backroom deal” that was rammed down probation departments’ throats.

“This wasn’t a, ‘Hey, we’ve got this problem, how do we solve this?’” he said. “It was, ‘This is what we’re going to do because this is important to us. We don’t care what your opinion or input is.’”

Still, Reyman said he and other probation officers will figure out how to make it happen.

“Our passion is to help people change their lives and keep our community safe,” he said, “but this one is a big pill to swallow.”

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