Report 2019-116 Recommendations

To determine the effectiveness of its use of JJCPA funds, Kern should include in its year-end reports to Community Corrections descriptions or analyses of how its JJCPA-funded programs influenced its juvenile justice trends, as required by law.

To accurately assess the effectiveness of its programs, Kern should determine how to accurately identify in its case management system the JJCPA programs and services in which each individual participates or should enhance its system to provide this capability.

To ensure that counties adequately identify how they serve at-risk youth, the Legislature should require counties to define at-risk youth—including identifying specific risk factors—in their comprehensive plans.

To ensure that counties comply with juvenile justice planning requirements to serve both juvenile offenders and at-risk youth, the Legislature should require Community Corrections to review counties' annual comprehensive plans to ensure that they include an adequate county-specific definition of at-risk youth.

The Legislature should direct Community Corrections to monitor counties' year-end reports to ensure that they include meaningful descriptions or analyses of how their JJCPA-funded programs may have contributed to or influenced countywide juvenile justice trends, as required by state law.

To enable Community Corrections to provide effective oversight of the required elements of the JJCPA, the Legislature should amend state law to describe a process for restricting the spending of JJCPA funding by counties that do not meet the requirements of the JJCPA. As part of that process, the State should prohibit counties that have not established Coordinating Councils from spending JJCPA funds.

To make JJCPA funding more stable and predictable, the Legislature should amend state law to increase the amount of guaranteed JJCPA funding the State provides to counties. If the Legislature decides to stabilize JJCPA funding, it should direct Community Corrections to evaluate the expenditure information counties submit and identify an appropriate amount of base funding. The Legislature should further direct Community Corrections to assess every five years the percentage of total JJCPA funds that growth funds represent to determine whether the base funding needs to be adjusted.

To determine the effectiveness of its use of JJCPA funds, Los Angeles should include in its year-end reports to Community Corrections descriptions or analyses of how its JJCPA-funded programs influenced its juvenile justice trends, as required by law.

To adequately assess the effectiveness of its programs at reducing juvenile crime and delinquency, Los Angeles should collect data on all participants in each JJCPA program and for each service it provides.

To accurately assess the effectiveness of its programs, Los Angeles should determine how to accurately identify in its case management system the JJCPA programs and services in which each individual participates or should enhance its system to provide this capability.

To ensure that its Coordinating Council meets statutory requirements and is transparent to stakeholders, Mendocino should reinstate its Coordinating Council and develop and implement bylaws for its Coordinating Council.

To determine the effectiveness of its use of JJCPA funds, Mendocino should include in its year-end reports to Community Corrections descriptions or analyses of how its JJCPA-funded programs influenced its juvenile justice trends, as required by law.

To adequately assess the effectiveness of its programs at reducing juvenile crime and delinquency, Mendocino should collect data on all participants in each JJCPA program and for each service it provides.

To ensure that its Coordinating Council meets statutory requirements and is transparent to stakeholders, San Joaquin should develop and implement bylaws for its Coordinating Council.

To determine the effectiveness of its use of JJCPA funds, San Joaquin should include in its year-end reports to Community Corrections descriptions or analyses of how its JJCPA-funded programs influenced its juvenile justice trends, as required by law.

To adequately assess the effectiveness of its programs at reducing juvenile crime and delinquency, San Joaquin should collect data on all participants in each JJCPA program and for each service it provides.

To determine the effectiveness of its use of JJCPA funds, Santa Barbara should include in its year-end reports to Community Corrections descriptions or analyses of how its JJCPA-funded programs influenced its juvenile justice trends, as required by law.

To accurately assess the effectiveness of its programs, Santa Barbara should determine how to accurately identify in its case management system the JJCPA programs and services in which each individual participates or should enhance its system to provide this capability.

To ensure that counties' comprehensive plans are informative and up to date, Community Corrections should revise its comprehensive plan template to require Coordinating Councils to specify plan components their counties are changing and to describe those changes. If a county is making no changes, the template should require the Coordinating Council to explain why no changes to the plan are necessary.

To ensure that counties include accurate information in their comprehensive plans and year-end reports, Community Corrections should review the information counties submit to it and follow up with them to obtain missing information or to clarify information that seems incorrect.

To better promote effective local efforts related to the JJCPA, Community Corrections should include on its website the capability for stakeholders, counties, and other interested parties to review and easily compare the JJCPA information of multiple counties. Specifically, its website should allow users to be able to select a specific type of JJCPA-funded program and easily review information the counties submitted for all programs associated with that program type. Community Corrections should determine the cost of providing this additional service and, if necessary, request additional resources.