Juvenile hall population falls 35 percent

DOWNEY - The population at all three Los Angeles County juvenile halls has fallen 35 percent since 2009, officials with the Corrections Standards Authority - a division within the California Department of Corrections - announced this week.The Los Angeles County Probation Department was mandated in January 2009 to begin reporting its daily population to the Corrections Standards Authority (CSA) after its occupancy levels were found to be "above capacity." Over the past two years, the juvenile services bureaus within the probation department set out to lower the population numbers in juvenile halls "by making improvements in the way minors were provided with services," probation officials said in a news release. "Our staff has implemented effective alternatives to detention for minors in our community," said Donald Blevins, chief of the probation department. "As a result, there are 500 fewer minors in custody than there were just two years ago." Accord to the press release, the CSA's board voted to end state monitoring of the county's juvenile halls.

********** Published: April 21, 2011 - Volume 10 - Issue 1