A new juvenile receiving center set to open in July will
streamline booking and providing services to South County’s
juvenile offenders.
A new juvenile receiving center set to open in July will streamline booking and providing services to South County’s juvenile offenders.
Currently, police either have to transport a juvenile offender up to San Jose for processing or, if the offense warrants only a citation, wait until enough citations accumulate to justify the 35 mile drive to Santa Clara County Juvenile Probation Department. This process sometimes results in two or three months passing before a minor is contacted by a probation officer.
The center will “get kids connected to services and a probation officer right away,” said Delores Nnam, of the county Probation Department.
“The entire community benefits when services are provided in a timely manner,” said county Supervisor Don Gage.
The South County center will be based out of the Gilroy Police Department and serve Gilroy, San Martin and Morgan Hill youth who are cited by police and are not a continued threat to community safety but require immediate intervention, according to the probation department. Citations for South County youth will be processed within three to seven days. The center will operate Tuesday through Saturday with probation employees focusing on expediting citations earlier in the week and juveniles being brought in for processing during peak evening and night hours later in the week. County probation staff will run the center with 1.5 probation officer positions and clerical support, Nnam said.
“The Alternative Reception Center is geared for mid-level offenders – those youth who do not rise to a level of criminality and public safety that warrants them to be at juvenile hall, yet need to be held accountable and diverted so we can provide immediate intervention and referral,” said county Chief Probation Officer Sheila Mitchell. “By reducing the amount of time between the citation of a South County juvenile and the processing of that citation by justice systems partners, probation staff will be able to swiftly refer kids to services which will benefit them.”
The probation department expects to screen up to 450 juveniles brought to the center and process up to 850 citations per year.
The joint project between county Probation, the county Sheriff’s Office, and the Morgan Hill and Gilroy police departments is made possible by a two-year, $347,000 federal earmark the county probation department was invited to apply for. The grant requires $239,585 in matching funds from the county, according to county staff. After two years, the department will assess the effectiveness of the center and decide whether or not it will seek other sources of funding to keep the program alive, Nnam said.
“The goal is to have better outcomes for our kids and a safer community by making resources readily available, from substance abuse counseling to gang intervention,” said county Supervisor George Shirakawa in a written statement. “Our youth need to be held immediately accountable.”
