Juvenile Correction Program, Los Guilicos

Sonoma County. The chosen spot of all the earth as far as nature is concerned, according to the famed plant wizard Luther Burbank Diverse County, with 1,010,000 acres of land on 1574 miles of scenic roadways, the county is rightfully famed for its agriculture did a culture, industry

and recreation, as well as for the amazingly successful ethnic and economic mixture of its more than 340,000 residents on for the forward looking philosophy of its local governing bodies. Now we invite you to take a closer look at Sonoma County in the eighties with your host,

Rich McGlinchy. Welcome to another edition of Sonoma County in the eighties. We're gonna be talking about the juvenile correction program, and we're going to talk to Sean McDermott, who is the program coordinators on the right of your screen. And we're also going to talk to Emmanuel

Via, and he's the program director, and he's on the left of your screen and tell you a little tail out of school. We had these gentlemen with us here a few months ago, and as will happen once in a while, our audio failed and so the

program did not get aired. It's a very important program. We wanted these gentlemen back with us again to tell you about it. Sean. It's nice to have you here. Nice to be again manual. Same here, but in here, Uh, John, you're the program coordinator. So let's

throw the first question at you. What is the Juvenile Correctional Program? And maybe more important than that, what's the purpose for the program itself is a program for older boys that have gone through the criminal justice system here in Sonoma County. Primarily, it's boys that have

gone to a variety of different placements with no success. And the court has seen fit to give them one more shot at turning there behavior around and become positive, growing, community oriented citizens in Sonoma County. So our purpose in the program is to see to the

needs that the court has presented for us. We provide a variety of counseling formats for the kids in the program. We provide work experience. We do a lot of job training. We stress an academic component so that when the kids graduate from our program, they have

some fundamental basis from which to grow from. Hopefully, when they complete the program, they've either have a high school diploma or GED. They've I had the opportunity to train for and look for jobs as part of their program requirement. And for the most part, they do

an awful lot of work in the various projects that we have developed within the program on grounds. Well, Sean, when and perhaps better yet how was the Jason P program established? It was established in 1982. A matter of fact, it was established July 1st when a

boy came to the court with no particular our recommendation or place to go on. And the judge sitting on the bench that day said, I'm not gonna commit a kid to a long term commitment in the Juvenile Hall. I want this kid to be. I want

this case to be continued when, when I call this case back into court, I want the Juvenile Hall to have a program that I can place this kid into, and he gave us about 10 days to develop program. Um, that was that was over 5.5 years

ago, and the program itself has gone through a tremendous evolution to get to the point where it's at today. We did put something together rapidly and 14 days, but, uh, it's nowhere near what we have today. No, that was That's what you call being creating a

program under the good, isn't it? You bad manual? Um, what does the juvenile correction program actually consist of, uh, today at first, Well developed from a three month stay period for residents in the program. Today it has evolved to a six month program, and other residents

who are in the program, uh, are involved in family counseling, individual counseling, a zealous, some vocational training, and also there's ah school program and each of these different areas they're required different responsibilities for them, too, to grow, as as individuals went part of the the purpose

with a juvenile correctional program that we didn't touch, promised restitution. And, uh uh, the residents inner program have restitution to pay to the victims of the crime. So the program does allow for some of that restoration to be paid for. That's something we missed. Excuse me.

Um, the two questions How long is the program? And then one of the residents do whether actually in the JCP as faras the link for lately. It's a minimum of six months, and there's no maximum because it could go up to about a year. Residents earned

privileges and earned the right to go from one level to the next in the program, and some have failed certain levels. So they have to repeat those those levels in the program. All right, Now, what do they actually doing? They meet these levels, but what are

they actually do while are in the program? Okay, The 1st 5 weeks, father in the program eyes that this time period for the staff as well as a residence, getting to get familiarized with the Journal Correctional Program and they're tested for education abilities. They have psychological

ALS that they are required to take to just assess where they are with any basic skills, any to work on. Um, during that time, a treatment plan is established for them with the approbation counselors to call a psychologist and also the school instructor. And after all

of the battery of tests or take care of, then there I have ah treatment plant. And then from there, they can work on the areas any thio, Thio build on things to strengthen on. During that same time, they are assigned different tasks or responsibilities. We have

residents that will work in our kitchen. We have residents that will work in our furniture refreshing shop. Uh, some will also work in her bike shop, and we also have a pig raising programas well, and everybody takes part and each of these projects and basically it's

just to prepare him for being on community. Have Sean, is there any creature you follow when accepting a minor into the Juvenile Correctional Program? Well, we have established criteria that we used in determining a minor suitability to the treatment that we offer. Uh, one of the

primary things we look for is that we'd like the kids to be as close to the age of 18 as possible. One of our goals and primary purposes is emancipation. For the most part, the kids we work with don't have too much in the way of

family reunification in their in their immediate future. So emancipation is one of the things that is very important to us. So we like to put the kids into the community as adults. And so we look at you, look at their age level is one of our

primary criteria. There are things we go through our, their level of criminal sophistication in their history, their background. Have they been involved in things that would cause them to not be amenable to the treatment that we offer and that that's a variety of things. And we

work closely with our psychologist and determining, you know, the capability for them succeeding in our program. Uh uh, certainly we don't take because, well, because of all our various work projects, we use a lot of tools, power tools. We put the kids into situations where they're

responsible for a variety of different types of equipment. We don't take kids that have a history of violent background. We certainly don't want to have a kid with a power saw. Our skill saw working in an area where it's it's a although it's a controlled environment,

there's there's a high level of intensity going on, and these kids have demonstrated over a period of time, significant outbursts of anger. So we want to make sure that as best possible, that that's not gonna come up. Yeah, um, manual. Is there any family involvement while

a resident is in the JCP? Although that's not our primary priority. There is some family involvement. We are involved in family counseling. Our staff do work with closely with the parents and, uh, do spend time in looking at a treatment plan further, son, and go from

there. But, yeah, it is. It is part of, but not essential to the program. But there is some family. Yes. Yes, there is. Um are most of these youngsters? I presumed you have families. They're not orphaned her for the most. They do. But the very dysfunctional

families, Uh, so we need to work on them, getting to a point where they can have a relation with families. Uh, back you show it from. And how does your programme prepare the resident to go back into the community after time spent with you? Well, I

think that's an important question. One of the things that is very important to us is altering the kids thinking patterns. We found that the kids have developed a motive thinking that is abnormal. Where where the community is concerned. So everything that we do within the program

is set up in such a way to alter that mode of thinking, Tom. So we stress a lot of counselling in that respect so that when they don't do go back into the community there, looking at it in a more positive sense, they're not thinking in

terms of criminal behavior, which has they have adapted over time. Um, but along with that, as I mentioned earlier, we stress job training, living skills. We, uh we work a lot on teaching them how to look for jobs, how to fill out applications, how to go

through job interviews. We try to, through our various projects, try to teach a, uh, element of the work ethic to teach them that you know, it's good to work, that you derive satisfaction out of it, that when and to work in an environment where you know

you are controlled, where you have a boss, where you have supervisor and you can't blow up and just quit your job. Whenever your supervisor tells you to do something that is contrary to what you may think, it's time. So you know, those are the types of

fundamental training that we try to put the boys through to prepare them to step out of our program and hopefully be successful. And then lastly, we try to really stress an academic component in the program so that one give them a feeling that education is fun

and education is beneficial, so that if there they are inclined in that direction, they can pursue their education further through others. Junior college programs or, you know, higher University. But you know, it's it's just fundamentally, uh, dealing with their behavior, dealing with the way they think

and showing them and getting them to understand that what the way they have fought up to this point in time is not appropriate. Well, you mentioned job training and living something else that you that two things that you work with them on, what you give them

job training and your living experience, so to speak, or where you had another phrase there. Um, I guess these kids have been pretty alienated from family and from from society in general, haven't they? For the most part, yes, many of the kids that we work with

all of us in the program have seen these kids over seven or eight year period It's amazing how many kids we see that we originally saw come into the juvenile Hall when they were 11 years old, and we have raised them to a certain extent, as

much as the community or their family has. And in that respect, yes, they have become alienated to the resource is that are available to them in the community. Um, I may have to refer to this later on, but is there any Are are there any figures

that give you some idea of a success rate here? Sure, we were constantly trying to check up on our are, uh, kids that have have graduated program. Um, we we pretty much have come to a determination that were function at about a 40% success rate, which

compared to the rest of the criminal justice program is is a dramatic improvement over a variety of programs that are currently offered, Huh? Vocational training. Do you provide vocational training? We have some. It is limited at this time, but we are working to improve it. What

do you have now and what are you trying to add? Became a to present time. We do have a a furniture. Refreshing shop, and that's been with us since the very beginning. More residents are taught basic skills and stripping furniture, staining furniture and also just the

basic fundamentals of putting French together. And, uh, that, from the very beginning has been the one area where the resins are all all trained in consistently. Another program that we just started recently is our bike shop, where we get bikes from the sheriff Lord. Law enforcement

agencies and our residents are taught to, uh, take part and then put back together bikes getting painted and keep basic maintenance on. We also have frame shop were again. They're taught the basics and and all this tightened together is learning how to be responsible for basic

job skills. How toe taking direction from a supervisor or foreman. That's really a very important program because, you know, you get these youngsters and, as you say, many of you re cycling through the system later on. And you can't just throw up your hands on these

kids because there's a lot of potential Teoh if they can get him through this period and get him back into accepting society and working within the bounds of rules instead of breaking them. And I think what people are doing a very, very important We're gonna come

back. We're talking a great deal more about this. First, here's a public service announcement after which manual via Sean McDermott and I will return. We'll talk more about the Juvenile Correctional Program. Remember your lungs. I can understand why you forget them after all, is that song

you gotta have Heart? It wasn't. You gotta have bombs. Lungs. A vital smoking really messes your lungs up until finally you can't breathe. Maybe they'll never right. I left Mile lungs in San Francisco, so take care of your lungs. They're only human. The American Lung Association

Keep moving. Signs are often misunderstood. Based behavior, loss of awareness, aimless movements. You're on something hidden. Signs that may point to a common type of epilepsy. Early recognition and treatment of seizures can help keep kids like Evans on the team. Get the facts right. Epilepsy Foundation

of America, Washington, D. C. To double 013 Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen to this tradition of cinema cat in the eighties and we're talking about the juvenile correction program. We've been talking with manual villa and Sean McDermott. But before we get back into the questioning and

entering in that case, what called the attention to our artwork artwork, I should say that sonar walls. It's not our artwork. On the left of Just Green is the famous metal war, considered the greatest thoroughbred of all time by many horse lovers. And then on the

right of your screen is big Red. That was Matamoras nickname and ghosts. And this is the work of Joe Hoffman, the Occidental artist who I truly believe is one of the finest equine artists in the United States. And we thank you very much for letting us

use his artwork on our set. Well, we're talking to many and or manual and Sean and gonna come back to, uh, to you, I think first, many red of the Juvenile Correctional Program residents. A 10 school. And what did they do with that school? Okay, uh,

school that basically all doing all residents, then our next right in the facility itself and all the, uh, jcp resident attend, uh, one classroom and they all have one instructor who works with them and building there. There's their school skills up, uh, generally most of them

do, uh, try to take the G e d exam, and most of do you succeed. But that's one of the areas that that they work on is to try to get your g e d. And, uh, they use the computers to help them in the skills

recently, there using video cassette recorder to work on their public speaking, or just just just basic skills that's being used in almost every major private business training center in the United States. And when they're trying to train people many, many of whom were college graduates and

have to speak to a group for how to make a presentation. The video used to the video recorder to show the person how they're doing or not doing so to speak has been all important. Yeah, I think that's invaluable in trading and just to reinforce what

Sean said earlier. A lot of these residents don't have the basic disciplinary skills to be able to sit in a classroom, and that's one of the major task to be able to sit in a classroom in a desk and do work, and we're always striving to

reinforce that discipline being able to fallen directions. Instructions. And that is, you know, again, one of the focuses. I asked this question of either of you. And I know that is very important in the public in general, when they're talking about youngsters who have run afoul

of the law or have hurt people or have destroyed property or something on then been apprehended, incarcerated, there's a matter in many cases of restitution. Uh, John, you want to start off on that? Are here? Um, almost all the kids that come into our program have

some type of restitution requirement. 00 And we see that as a responsibility that we have to the community. Now we've been talking about our various work projects. Are furniture shop in our bicycle repair shop frame shops? Naturally, we don't do this for free. We contract the

workout. We take in pieces of furniture from private citizens. We do framework for private citizens as well as the people that work for the county, and we charge a nominal son for them. Now that money all goes into a trust account that builds up over a

period of time. And what we do is when a boy graduates our program, we will pay a portion of his restitution or all of it. Whatever is up to $300 now, we don't generate enough income that we can take on a restitution figure of, say, $1200

as is the case, sometimes with some of the boys are around. But mostly kids have come into our programs. Figures run between 153 $100 for the most part, when they graduate, our program, which is a requirement to have this restitution figure covered, uh, we can take

care of it. It's a significant plus for them when they go back into the community, because some one of the biggest problems that probationers have in the community is keeping up with their restitution. A lot of them get into the community and don't get the opportunity

right out the gate to make payments to the victim through the restitution program. So what happens over a short period of time? Their probation is violated and they're back in the system because they couldn't keep up with that. So we do as much as we can

to address that need for them, so that when they go back into the community. It's not a problem for them. So it's a two fold benefit. It benefits them because they don't have to worry about it. Plus, they see that they're getting it through the work

that they dio and it benefits the victims of the crimes that they've committed. You know, this brings to mind two thoughts right quick. One of them is my capacity is a public information coordinator. County. I put out of you a mechanic reporter every six weeks. This

is something you should send us a story about the fact that their services are available to county employees and at ACRI, of course, refurnished for furniture. That sort of thing might drum up it off A lot of business for them. County employees are getting their county

furniture refurbished every month to, you know, just like the others are. It's amazing how much work we have been able to generate just by word of mouth. Yeah, believe it. I think that should we expand the program? Uh, which would take a variety of things, including

funding. Um, we may be able to expand our work projects and our capacity to do more work. Currently, we're We're pretty loaded down pretty well. Okay, that's good. If you need more business, let us know that brings to mind. Are you said something about money? How

is the JCP funded? Well, that's a good question. Our program wars not well. It's more or less not funded. Why program functions within the guidelines of the juvenile hall budget that we, the money that we generate throughout work projects is not used to fund the program.

We may take a little bit out here to buy some furniture, stripper or a screwdriver, something like that to use in our shop. But most of the stuff that we do is funded within our juvenile hall budget. It's one of the biggest complaints of our staff

because naturally we have a very highly motivated, highly efficient, very good group of staff working in this program, and, you know, they they want to push forward. And the thing that keeps us from pushing forward is the fact that the budgetary need is is not met.

And we're hoping that oh, we're at a point right now where we can show to the county into the court system. The statistical proof of our success so that maybe in the next budget year we can be funded separately from the juvenile hall budget. But after

20 minutes left here, I got 20 more questions. Lead resource is air utilized from the community in your program. You mentioned those stress, the more we use as many as possible. We certainly deal with a variety of counseling programs. We currently have a substance abuse counseling

program within the guidelines of the juvenile Hall, but we bring in Resource is guest speakers from, say, Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous County substance abuse programs. Way use. We use private citizens. Private systems donate a lot of the material we use in the program. Private businesses assist

us in learning how to work with, say, framing materials on provide us with discount so that we can purchase the materials and stay within the guidelines of the budget that we have. How come a private business and people watching the program at this time would want

to assist you? How would you get in touch with you? It's very simple. They can call the juvenile hall. It's listed in the phone book. They can ask for manual or myself, and we'd be more than happy to help anybody out or assist anybody in any

way. Got a couple of moments that many, many, uh, manual doing any other juvenile facilities in the state offer a program similar? The one you have here just time with the only one. Is that right? We're aware. Yes. There there is none that would be is

close to ours. I mean, we're the only one basically do offer these this service, Teoh delinquents in our area been successful to, uh how does the JCP benefit to community other than restitution, I think primarily is we're taking in boys who, for the most part, they

didn't come through our program more than likely would continue their criminal behaviors. Adults and I mentioned earlier that we have about a 40% success rate. So four out of those 10 boys are not gonna be committing crimes and jeopardizing the welfare of the community, uh, after

their graduation. But I think that what we're doing is we're putting kids or at this point, young adults back into the community with a more positive attitude of life, with a better understanding of what is appropriate for them and they And hopefully they're running with that

ball once we've given it to him and becoming becoming successful members of the community. All right, we count Teoh a few seconds left and manual here. We had mentioned Hougan citizens get in contact with if they're interested in getting furniture, refinished, buying a pig, dying or

donating a bike or having a picture of poster frame, uh, again called juvenile Hall. And they can ask Sean or myself way would be more than happy toe. Help him out. Okay, Daniel, thank you for coming back again. Sean. Thank you for being pleasure. Ladies and

gentlemen, we've been talking to Sean McDermott and Manual fell out of a juvenile correctional program. My name is Rich. McGlinchey. I'll be back next week for another man with the county government, family or an important related agency Until then. Good night. Good luck and good health

to you all