CJCJ's Executive Director Daniel Macallair, is a practitioner-in-residence at San Francisco State University (SFSU)'s Department of Criminal Justice Studies. These slides are from his Juvenile Justice course materials.

1. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
Closing California Youth Correctional Institutions

2. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2019
www.cjcj.org
Arrests of California youth (as a percent of the total population age 10-17) have fallen
by 92% since their peak in 1969, and by 85% since 1990, to record low levels
7.4%
7.0%
6.0%
5.4%
4.4%
2.1%
1.1%
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

3. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
Expansion of Juvenile Halls
in California
 Demographic population shift and growing
percentage of youth of color feeds White fear
 Spike in youth crime (1987-1994) blamed on
leniency of the juvenile justice system
 Leads to conservative tough on crime
policies emphasizing harsher punishment of
youth
 Conservative elites suggest that
demographic shift equates with more violent
youth further feeding White racial fears
 Congress passes legislation to incentivize
states to expand youth detention facilities
 California provides additional funding to
encourage counties to expand local
detention facilities.
 Over 75 new detention centers and county
youth correctional facilities are built 1999-
2010)

4. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
Unprecedented youth crime declines result in empty juvenile halls
(1994-Present)
• Unprecedented decline in California youth
crime
• Juvenile hall populations plummet
• After a decade of county institution
building, detention centers operate at less
than a 1/3 of capacity
• Legislative Analyst Office estimates over
8000 vacant juvenile hall beds throughout
California
•

5. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2019
www.cjcj.org
Local youth incarcerations have fallen by 70% since 2000 as juvenile halls and camps
have expanded. Result: over 9,000 empty beds today.
9,357
11,978
Facility population 10,345
5,041
3,632
9,412
Facility capacity (beds)
14,030
12,856 12,840
55
-948
Empty beds
2,452
7,815
9,208
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

6. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
Avoiding Risk: Priorities of Correctional Administrators
 Maintain your agency’s budget
 Avoid staff conflicts and union issues
 Maintain relationships with elected officials
 Minimize scrutiny of policies and practices
 Maintain image of organizational stability
 Avoid a major incident that suggests poor
management
 Protect and maintain conventional practices
 Minimize role of outside organizations in agency
functions

7. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
Strategies employed by probation systems to increase juvenile hall
populations
 Increase number of youth detained for lower level
offenses or non-delinquent behavior
 Extend length of stay for youth who would otherwise
be released
 Increase the arrests of youth who violate probation
conditions (technical violations)
 Utilize juvenile halls for long term confinement
 Expand the age of juvenile court jurisdiction (raise
juvenile court jurisdiction from age 18 to age 20)
 Permit the housing of adult inmates in juvenile halls

8. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
Case Example
Seeking Bodies: California Probation Chiefs Propose Raising the Age of Juvenile
Court Jurisdiction
• Chief Probation Officers Association Proposed (CPOC) propose Elevate Justice Act (2020)
• Act would raise the juvenile court jurisdiction age up to 20
• Act would double the population pool for juvenile hall
• CPOC had no previous interest in this policy