Despite disagreement on the details, Contra Costa County supervisors said they’re of like mind about achieving the best possible outcomes for young people in the county’s juvenile justice system.
During an almost-12-hour meeting that featured budget presentations from 10 agencies, including the Sheriff’s Department, and more than three hours of public comments, supervisors said they expect county officials to work together over the next year or more to decide whether to close either the Orin Allen Youth Rehabilitation Facility near Byron or Juvenile Hall in Martinez.
That discussion, supervisors said, will be part of a more overarching dialogue about re-imagining how youth justice is carried out in Contra Costa County. Several supervisors said they expect Chief
Probation Officer Esa Ehmen-Krause and District Attorney Diana Becton to collaborate with others on a task force.
Ehmen-Krause’s department recommended closing the Byron facility in mid-2022, but Becton said she supports keeping the Byron Boys Ranch open and favors closing Juvenile Hall. Supervisor John Gioia said Becton and Ehmen-Krause should bring different perspectives to a situation they both want to succeed.
“The task force is more than about Juvenile Hall; it’s about the system,” Gioia said.
East Bay elected officials have been hearing increasing calls to redirect funding from law enforcement agencies to mental health, affordable housing, homeless services and youth support services.
The Contra Costa board is no different. Almost all the public speakers addressed either the Boys Ranch-Juvenile Hall issue, or “defunding” the Sheriff’s Office.
Several deputy district attorneys and public defenders were among the many who called for the closure of Juvenile Hall.
Dr. Lonnie Bristow of Walnut Creek, who blasted a Probation Department recommendation to close the Orin Allen facility and move some of its programs to a relatively empty Juvenile Hall, said that would please bean counters far more than social workers.
“That (Probation) report has little or no perspective on the social side of what we’re talking about,” said Bristow, who said supervisors should instead heed a Grand Jury report that called early this year for keeping the Byron Boys Ranch open and closing the hall.
Chala Bonner, an activist with the West County-based Safe Return Project, said, “To hear how the board is deciding the fate of our youth, especially our black and brown youth, is ridiculous and disgusting.”
Deputy Public Defender Nicole Eiland stated simply that Juvenile Hall is bad for children.
“I have stood for years and watched families wither in the face of the juvenile justice system,” Eiland told the supervisors. “We want to keep our children out of trauma-inducing facilities like Juvenile Hall.”
A popular idea among area supporters of defunding law enforcement is forming a non-police mental health crisis response program. Contra Costa supervisors like that idea, too, though they did not say whether they would fund it with money from the Sheriff’s budget.
Gioia said the City of Walnut Creek has been working on something like that for a year in conjunction with county health officials, and the Board of Supervisors could help move that process forward.
17 comments
So Nicole Eiland … you want to keep our children out of Juvi? Teach them to follow the laws. Teach them to obey the police. Teach them the difference from RIGHT AND WRONG.
And you are concerned about our black and brown youth … really? What about the other children in our community? They don’t matter?
So not sure if you are elected or not, but if elected, I will be happy to vote you OUT of office.
No worries about yellow, white, or LGBTQ?
Sounds racist.
Sadly, Nikki isn’t elected….
There are several public officials who have a stake in the Juvenile Hall-Byron Ranch issue but there is no reason for our DA to be messing with it. She needs to stay inside where she can cause less harm.
Considering the fact that the D.A is being so generous with her opinions on the operation of another department (Probation) I wonder if she would be so generous with her purse strings If the Capital improvement and operational costs necessary to keep the Ranch open were to come out of her budget. Just saying.
Whatever they decide to do they should do on a trial basis so that when it fails they can revert back to the old system. I have a feeling all of this de fund the Police nonsense will fade away after the election. If Trump is re-elected then the riots and mayhem that ensues are going to require fully staffed police departments and if Biden wins and they continue to coddle and massage the miscreants then criminal activity will reach an all time high. Either way we will need our police, our prisons and our Juvenile detention facilities.
Once again, these people feign perpetual victimhood status………and you people (out of guilt) elect them to positions of power that they should never hold.
And now the chickens have come home to roost.
Check your Guilt!
Every democrat on claycord: “Whats the hell is going on?”
Every republican on claycord: “Told you”
“‘Deputy Public Defender Nicole Eiland stated simply that Juvenile Hall is bad for children.”
Know what’s worse than Juvenile Hall?…. Ask the victims of the serious crimes committed by these Juveniles upon the community. Burglary, Robbery, Assaults, Drug Dealing, Rape, Murder. Juvenile Hall is a consequence for committing these crimes. Rehabilitation is certainly needed and can be started when the individual is incarcerated for the crime they have committed. Part of the lesson is teaching that actions have consequences, and Juvenile Hall is a consequence.
Did I Say That Out Loud, Well said!
Come on Out Loud!
This is California, land of no consequences. We’re just continuing down the road to lawlessness!
Lock up the Punks !
And I, and many others, have cried many tears for our friends and neighbors who were killed by drunk driving juveniles whose parents paid no attention to them.
Here’s a thought. Put the parents in jail, make them pay for the crimes their children make. Maybe that would make parents wake up and take notice.
If anything they need more juvies. What is with this state where only the deranged and criminally minded have rights?
Would hope supervisors are smart enough to do an internet search using,
“Safe Return Project” “soros”
An just how do our elected public servants, propose to keep the community safe from the few juveniles who prove themselves to be stone cold predators ? ? ?
Yeah juvi is for children who commit crimes and the DA does not want to prosecute as adult
If the pro crying liberal socialist junkies with all the time to riot and spit and flip off police would maybe put forth an effort to inform those kids in juvi how they got lucky and need to listen and understand the way things are in the world and if they don’t like it there then they definitely won’t like big boy prison
Outreach and pro education is a step in the right direction
The problem is most of these so called kids have been influenced by their parents in negative ways obviously
So the social education must be completed with the parents present and also informed that any further escalation of their child’s rap sheet will be on them as well through community service and everyone’s favorite urinal scrubbing es that’s right
If you want people to get the point
It has to be sharp and unforgiving
Otherwise we see the result of entitled democrat babies and their parents in Seattle and Portland
Bad behavior rarely is hereditary
it is learned through parents or family or friends or school mates
Sounds like there could be an adult oriented approach to juvenial crime
Perhaps not throwing billions at illegals and bums and criminals would be better put to use in the means
But we all know dem politicians want crime and the chaos it brings
So they can increase taxes and fees and fines and support for more dem money laundering programs that accomplish nothing but terror for children and more cost to the people who pay those same democrats salary
Ahhhhh the double dip
A cherished staple of democrat politicians
A tax and a slap to the tax payer for it lol
Man if this was another country the democrats are would be pushing for those people to immigrate to the us and not be oppressed
Ahhh the hypocrisy of dem politicians and their voters still has no end or reason accept spite and democrats entitlement to our money for what ever they want to use it for
Look, I agree Juvenile Hall needs reforms.
It needs a license plate press, it needs rock-breaking gangs, it needs bloodhounds and The Box, it needs to be unpleasant for those violent people who commit grievous harm on others in their community.
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