BILL NUMBER: AB 407 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 1, 2007
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 16, 2007
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Swanson
(Principal coauthor: Senator Ridley-Thomas)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bass and Hancock)
(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 amended, 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. The bill would require participating
county offices of education to complete a report evaluating the
effectiveness of the pilot program, and to submit the report to the
Legislature on or before June 30, 2012. The bill would
require the Legislative Analyst's Office to conduct an analysis of
the report.
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. Matching funds may be
in cash from existing or new nonfederal sources or from in-kind
contributions. 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. The
Legislative Analyst's Office shall conduct an analysis of the report.
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 become operative only if an appropriation
is made for its purposes in the annual Budget Act or other statute.
(i) 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.