⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Recommendations 24
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R1The City should renovate a City property for use as a youth guidance center, purchase a building for use as a youth guidance center, or build a new youth guidance center. A new youth guidance center should take priority over acquisition or construction of any other City facility.
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R2The Mayor, each member of the Board of Supervisors, and the Judges of the Superior Court should tour the YGC at once to observe the conditions for themselves.
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R3The City should invite all interested television stations, radio stations, and print media to tour and film the YGC so that the public can be made aware of the conditions at the YGC.
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R4The CGJ recognizes that a new youth guidance center cannot be acquired or built immediately. However, since the present situation is unacceptable, the CGJ recommends that the City immediately expedite measures to improve the health, safety, and welfare of our incarcerated youth at the YGC, particularly in response to fire safety issues. Some possible remedies are: a) Purchase and install a central locking/unlocking mechanism for each individual cell. b) Install smoke detectors in each cell so that counselors in the central area of each unit will be able to detect a fire breaking out in an individual cell. c) Install a sprinkler system in the hallways, common areas, and each individual cell. d) Given the fire safety hazard, increase the number of counselors in each locked unit so that the doors on each of the individual cells can remain unlocked at all times for safety purposes. Each of these remedies comes with a cost, either for equipment or personnel or both. This additional cost is worthwhile when compared to the carnage that would result from a major fire or emergency where the youth could not be evacuated from their cells. The City cannot maintain the status quo while debating whether to acquire or build a new facility or during the construction or acquisition process of a new facility.
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R5The interior of the YGC should be painted at once, in appropriate colors, in order to make the facility less dreary. II. Housing for Girls Boys at the YGC are housed in five separate units, taking into account their age, the severity of alleged offenses, and other factors to protect the younger and more vulnerable boys. However, there are insufficient facilities to separate the girls, pre- adjudication, in a similar manner. Girls of all ages and regardless of the severity of the alleged crimes are housed together in a single unit. The impact is, for example, that a naive thirteen-year-old girl accused of a minor offense lives with a relatively sophisticated seventeen-year-old girl accused of a much more serious crime. Currently, most of the girls who are court-ordered to serve time in a facility are sent out of the Bay Area, sometimes as far away as Colorado and Pennsylvania.
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R6The JPD must immediately find a location to properly house the girls involved with the juvenile justice system.
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R7The CGJ recommends that Hidden Valley Ranch be made into a facility to house girls in the juvenile justice system.
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R8The CGJ recommends that the JPD investigate a possible arrangement with the surrounding counties to house those counties' girls at Hidden Valley Ranch thereby sharing the expense.
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R9The CGJ recommends that the JPD investigate the possibility of using Hidden Valley Ranch to house not only those girls held pre-adjudication, but also those girls whose cases have been adjudicated. Housing these girls closer to home would encourage more family involvement, save the expense of housing the girls in distant locations, save travel costs of JPD personnel to travel to these sites, and provide more opportunity for community groups in reintroducing the girls to the community after release. III. Care of Youth While in Custody of Juvenile Probation Department And After Release To rehabilitate youth in its custody, the JPD should have sufficient programs to retain the young people's attention all of their waking hours. Such programs as do exist are haphazard and far from comprehensive. Once youths are released from the juvenile justice system, the Probation Officers maintain some contact with them. There are some procedures in place (for example, a Memorandum of Understanding between the JPD and the Department of Public Health relating to health care needs of youth being released from custody), but there are few comprehensive, coordinated programs to follow youths back into the community and provide them with necessary and basic human services. Frequently, the youth are simply dispatched back into the communities they came from with insufficient guidance in how to further their education, find and keep a job, obtain health care and life skills, and reintegrate into our community.
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R10In accordance with its stated philosophy to "promote[] the belief that youth should be offered every opportunity for rehabilitation and growth... [and] endeavor to provide the youth in our charge with the tools to succeed by teaching life skills and providing educational, vocational and emotional support," the Juvenile Probation Department -- coordinating with other responsible City departments and agencies, with community groups and, wherever possible, with the families of the youth -- should formulate effective programs to care for youth both while in custody and after release.
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R11While the youth are incarcerated under the control of the City, programs should be instituted (or, where they currently exist, expanded), to provide them with training and counseling in at least the following areas: a. Drug counseling, including peer counseling; b. Sex education and family issues; c. Practical life skills; d. Appropriate educational programs, including vocational training or GED where appropriate; e. Skills in how to find and keep a job.
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R12An "after-care" program must be adopted for youth when they are released from the juvenile justice system that encompasses at least the following concerns: a. Returning to school or entering alternative programs to complete his or her education. b. Counseling and job training; c. Finding and keeping a job, either after school or full-time; d. Emotional health and life skills; e. Parenting skills where necessary; f. Drug counseling where necessary; g. Family and peer interaction.
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R13The JPD must diligently and regularly monitor all of these activities and programs -- both while the youth are in custody and after release -- and develop objective criteria to determine whether the programs are succeeding and, if not, to replace them with better programs. IV. Grant Money Funds are available through state and federal grants, grants from public and private foundations and trusts, and other sources for various programs designed to help youth at risk who become involved in the juvenile justice system.
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R14The CGJ recommends that the JPD hire or retain, on a full-time basis, an individual with background and training in development and fund raising, and particularly with skills in the search and application for grants. V. Grievance Procedure If a youth incarcerated at the YGC or Log Cabin Ranch has a complaint or grievance, he or she turns in a complaint form which is reviewed by the supervising counselors who may be the very persons about whom the youth may have a complaint or grievance.
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R15The CGJ recommends the appointment of an ombudsperson to whom youth can turn with confidence to express grievances. We do not view this individual as an advocate for the youth, but rather a neutral party who can report the grievance to the appropriate party and then follow up to ensure it is resolved. VI. Coordination of Activities Among Responsible Departments, Commissions, and Agencies The City's juvenile justice system is governed by two bodies. The JJC, whose members are appointed by the Superior Court, is mandated by Welfare and Institutions Code § 229 "to inquire into the administration of the juvenile court law in the county or region in which the commission serves. For this purpose the commission shall have access to all publicly administered institutions authorized or whose use is authorized by this chapter situated in the county or region, shall inspect such institutions no less frequently than once a year, and may hold hearings." The JPC is a creature of the City Charter whose members are appointed by the Mayor. Although, as indicated above, it has no mission statement, the CGJ presumes that the JPC sees its roles as similar to that of the JJC. There are numerous City departments, commissions, and agencies which have obligations to youth involved in the criminal justice system, including the JPD, the JPC, the JJC, the Superior Court, the San Francisco Unified School District, the Department of Public Health, the Police Department, the District Attorney, and the Public Defender. Some of the departments are run by commissions. Others report directly to the Mayor. Still others are run by elected public officials. The JPC is appointed by the Mayor, whereas the JJC is appointed by the Superior Court. Each of these departments, commissions, and agencies has its own vertical management hierarchy.
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R16The CGJ urges the JJC and the JPC to coordinate their activities, to pool their collective talents, and to work together toward the common goal of assisting youth at risk in our City.
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R17The CGJ recommends that, since the JPD, under the guidance of the Chief Probation Officer, has the overall responsibility for the operation of the juvenile justice system, it must provide strong leadership, vision, and professionalism. The CGJ recommends that the JPD exercise its responsibilities with greater strength and vigor, using the "bully pulpit" when necessary to coordinate the services provided by various City departments and community-based organizations for the benefit of the City's youth.
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R18The CGJ recommends that the JPD fulfill its mission statement and coordinate the activities of all of the departments that have any responsibility for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. There must be a strong leader appointed with authority to coordinate the activities of all departments having obligations to provide services for our City's youth. VII. Education of Youth In The Juvenile Justice System The San Francisco Unified School District is responsible for educating juveniles in the custody of the JPD.
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R19The CGJ recommends that the San Francisco Unified School District, in coordination with the JPD, adopt an educational program such as that recommended by Jefferson Associates and Community Research Associates in March 1987 entitled "Creating a New Agenda for the Care and Treatment of San Francisco's Youthful Offenders: A Model Program." This education program would contain the following components: a. Functional assessment; b. Functional curriculum; c. Vocational education; d. Transition; e. Comprehensive systems; f. Training of correctional educators. [7]
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R20The CGJ recommends that the San Francisco Unified School District and the JPD make a commitment to use the time during which youthful offenders are incarcerated for an appropriate educational program to improve their chances in life after release. VII. Contracts With Outside Service Providers The JPD has entered into contracts with outside service providers and community- based organizations which provide, for a fee, services which would otherwise be provided by the JPD. The City spent $1,219,035 in fiscal year 1996-1997 in payments to these service providers and community-based organizations; the budget in fiscal year 1997-98 is $1,279,990. The City has been paying a number of these groups for six years or longer.
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R21The JPD should comprehensively evaluate and monitor each service provider and community-based organization before issuing a new Request for Proposal.
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R22The JPD should develop objective criteria for monitoring and evaluating the services of these providers.
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R23The JPD should appoint a person as a contract administrator who shall regularly monitor and evaluate the programs provided by service providers and community-based organizations to ensure that the services are actually being provided, that the quality is as contracted, and that their obligations to the JPD and the youth are fulfilled. This person should provide a written report on a pre-assigned periodic basis to the Chief Probation Officer regarding these services as well as their effectiveness in accomplishing their goals. This report should be a public record protected by the City's Sunshine Ordinance. IX. Additional Training For Counselors The job description for the counselors at the YGC is as follows: The Counselor, Juvenile Hall is responsible for the care, custody, safety and welfare of juveniles detained at Juvenile Hall. The counselor observes behavior and conduct of residents in an assigned living unit; prepares and maintains records and reports such as incident reports, behavior reports and individual case reports; conducts on-going individual and group counseling sessions with juveniles; plans, directs and supervises leisure time activities; supervises residents en route to, from and at various locations; confers with departmental personnel and representatives of outside agencies..... [8] The CGJ asked repeatedly to see the manual or set of guidelines used by the JPD to train the counselors and outline their responsibilities and the JPD's expectations for their services. No such material was ever forthcoming, causing the CGJ to conclude that the JPD does not have an adequate manual or set of guidelines describing counselors' duties.
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R24The JPD should institute an ongoing formal training program for counselors beyond that required by state law, with a written manual or set of guidelines outlining their responsibilities and the expectations of the JPD for services provided by the counselors. REQUESTED RESPONSES Mayor Board of Supervisors Juvenile Probation Department Juvenile Probation Commission Juvenile Justice Commission San Francisco Unified School District Superior Court Department of Public Health Police Department REQUESTED RESPONSES (CONTINUED) District Attorney Public Defender -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes