Juvenile Hall numbers drop

Bi-county Juvenile Hall’s population has decreased drastically over the past decade as a result of intervention and prevention methods in schools.

The Yuba-Sutter facility’s current population is 23 occupied beds out of a possible 120. According to Juvenile Hall Superintendent Frank Sorgea, that is a dramatic change from 10 years ago, when 78 youths overcrowded a facility then-designed for 45.

“It was a disaster,” Sorgea said of the previous conditions. “We had mattresses on the floor just to house the kids we had.”

By 2000, Sorgea said, the facility had expanded to address overcrowding. That expansion included increasing the size of the existing boot camp, known as Maxine the Singer Youth Guidance Center. But since expanding to a 60-bed facility in 2001, the building has not reached its limit.

“It hasn’t been occupied,” Sorgea said. “The numbers have gone down so rapidly there is no need for them. It’s a remarkable issue, but we are in front of it.”

The drop in population at the bi-county facility on 14th Street in Marysville is largely attributed to the partnership between the two counties and a number of public entities.

Sutter Chief Probation Officer Christine Odom says the partnership with the schools, mental health programs and law enforcement on intervention and prevention at an early stage in a youth’s life contributes to the decrease. Programs address anger management, basic social skills and providing recreational activities.

“It was a change in philosophy,” Odom said. “It is as much about the money as it is about the philosophy. We could be given all this money - but if we didn’t (change how we do things), it wouldn’t matter.”

Odom said that in 1998 probation officers and department officials began evaluating their system to examine the juvenile’s whole family, not just the child.

“There are a multitude of things done differently since 1998,” Odom said. “I like to believe Yuba-Sutter is slightly ahead of other counties in that we started looking at not just the juvenile, but at the juvenile and their entire family early on.”

Odom said Sutter County’s case load is nearly half that of 1997’s. That year, 270 juveniles received services in Sutter County. As of July 2007, that number is 136. The number of youth sent to juvenile hall or sent to group homes also decreased, from 24 in 1997 to four as of July 2007.

That trend is reflected in Yuba County’s numbers as well, following 20 years of early-intervention programs. According to Steve Roper, the county’s chief probation officer, case loads have dropped from about 300 in 1997 to 80 today.

Roper said the programs’ presence in schools over the past 20 years contributed to the change in attitude and behavior of the youth.

“We were getting kids identified by way of arrest,” he said. “By then it was too late. We didn’t know they were struggling until we had them.”

Roper said that sending probation officers to schools and homes of troubled youth, problems were being brought to light and then addressed.

“Sometimes it was so simple as hygiene and not having a clean set of clothes that was preventing kids from going to school,” Sorgea said.

To further their efforts and expand programs, the probation departments of both counties received about $58,000 from the state through Senate Bill 81.

“We will most likely develop programs for serious offenders,” with the funds, Sorgea said. “We have Maxine as a model with minimum security; we’ll probably need something with more security. This money could go into researching programs for more serious offenses.”

Even with the great strides being made, administrators said there may never come a day where the population of juvenile hall is nonexistent. However, they are hopeful.

“I’m optimistic,” Roper said. “But I am a realist. I don’t think crime at any level will go away. But I’d love to say yes.”

Appeal-Democrat reporter Andrea Koskey can be reached at 749-4709 or at akoskey@appealdemocrat.com