BILL NUMBER: AB 407 INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Swanson (Principal coauthor: Senator Ridley-Thomas) (Coauthor: Assembly Member Bass) (Coauthor: Senator Romero) FEBRUARY 15, 2007 An act to add and repeal Section 237 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to juveniles. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 407, as introduced, Swanson. Probation Youth Success Act. Existing law authorizes probation departments to engage in activities designed to prevent juvenile delinquency. This bill would establish the Probation Youth Success Act, a 3-year pilot program to be conducted by the Los Angeles County Office of Education and the Alameda County Office of Education. The act would require those county offices of education, if they chose to participate, to provide comprehensive, integrated educational, vocational, and mental health services to selected wards in selected juvenile ranches, camps, and forestry camps. The bill would require participating counties to provide matching funds to any state funds received for the program. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares that: (a) Significant cost savings and reduced recidivism will result from investment in vocational training and postrelease support services for juvenile offenders in county custody. For every youth averted from incarceration in a Division of Juvenile Justice facility, the state will save between seventy thousand dollars ($70,000) and one hundred fifty-four thousand dollars ($154,000) per year in detention and related costs. For every youth prevented from going to prison as an adult, the state will save over thirty-four thousand dollars ($34,000) per inmate annually in detention costs alone. Assuming, based on Los Angeles County data, that about 30 percent (over 48,000) of all state prison inmates had juvenile records, a mere 1-percent reduction in these inmates would result in annual savings in excess of sixteen million dollars ($16,000,000). (b) Additional cost savings related to crime victims will be realized by providing those services to juveniles. For every one million dollars ($1,000,000) spent on appropriate, high-quality programs for juvenile offenders, up to 72 serious crimes are prevented. For each serious crime prevented, the per-victim cost savings ranges from sixty-eight thousand dollars ($68,000) to two hundred seventy-five thousand dollars ($275,000), with a mean savings of one hundred seventy-one thousand five hundred dollars ($171,500) per crime, per victim. (c) Appropriate postrelease services will increase wage productivity. For each youth who does not drop out of school or other postrelease education program, his or her earnings increase by three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000). At present, about one-half of all released youth drop out of school. If a comprehensive vocational training and postrelease support project prevented just 50 dropouts, the wage productivity of these youth would increase by fifteen million dollars ($15,000,000), with a related increase in participants' ability to pay taxes. SEC. 2. Section 237 is added to the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read: 237. (a) This section shall be known and may be cited as the Probation Youth Success Act. (b) The Los Angeles County Office of Education and the Alameda County Office of Education may each conduct a three-year pilot project wherein, in cooperation with their respective county probation departments and other partners, they provide comprehensive, integrated services to selected wards from 15 to 18 years of age, inclusive, in selected juvenile ranches, camps, and forestry camps, including all of the following: (1) A standards-based vocational or career technical education program, integrated with or in addition to the existing academic program in the facility. (2) Tutor or other educator services to support work-related and academic literacy and successful implementation of the vocational program. (3) An educational or vocational counseling program that addresses learning disabilities and provides, while a ward is in detention, intensive support and prerelease planning services. (4) Transition, education advocacy, and case management services to provide systems navigation, appropriate school or vocational training program placement, and referrals for housing, mental health services, and jobs for each ward for up to one full year after release. (5) Mental health services by licensed providers for the duration of the project and appropriate training for project staff to address the mental health needs of participants. (c) Each participating county office of education shall select between one and three juvenile ranches or camps as the pilot sites, based upon each ranch or camp's demonstrated ability to implement and manage such a program and to track outcomes. (d) Participating wards shall continue to receive required academic services, but shall be selected for this program based on, but not limited to, the following criteria: (1) Interest in, and ability to benefit from, intensive literacy support and vocational training. (2) A level of earned high school credits that places the ward one year or more below grade level. (3) Difficulty in passing standardized tests. (4) Likelihood that interest in, or need for, postgraduate or continuing education will be vocational rather than academic. (e) The maximum state grant for this project over the three-year pilot period, including program services, administration, and evaluation costs, shall not exceed four million five hundred thousand dollars ($4,500,000). Grant funds shall be matched by the county offices of education or program partners with one dollar ($1) for each five dollars ($5) allocated by the state. Each county office of education shall demonstrate that state funds will be used to provide new services or expand existing services, and that state funds will not supplant existing services. (f) Each participating county office of education shall provide or ensure provision of the comprehensive services outlined herein to a minimum of 400 wards, including a vocational training program, tutoring literacy support, educational and vocational counseling, prerelease planning, mental health services, and up to one year of postrelease support services to foster self-sufficiency and prevent recidivism. (g) Participating county offices of education shall complete a report that evaluates the effectiveness, including cost-effectiveness, of the pilot program. The report shall be submitted to the Legislature on or before June 30, 2012. Outcome measures shall include, but not be limited to, the following: (1) The number of wards who complete the vocational or career technical education program in the camp or residential facility. (2) The number of wards who receive prerelease planning and postrelease services. (3) Enrollment and retention rates in postrelease education or training programs or appropriate employment, or both, for a period of at least six months. (4) Rate of utilization of mental health services prerelease and postrelease and their impact on stability of residence, education, and employment. (5) Provision of case management and related postrelease services and their impact on the stability of each ward's residence, education, and employment. (6) Rate of recidivism and related cost savings or economic benefits, if any. (h) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2013, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2013, deletes or extends that date.