going to turn the top button good

afternoon it is 2 p .m and we are just waiting for uh my co -chair

supervisor otto lee to arrive and then i'll call the meeting to order good

afternoon uh it is

202 on monday march 16th 2026 and i'm calling to order this regular meeting of the public safety and justice committee let's begin with a roll call please vice chairperson lee good afternoon president and chairperson ellenberg i'm here as well thank you we have a quorum thank you very much and welcome to everyone else who is on the dais with us we'll go to public comment this is the portion of the agenda set aside for members of the public wishing to address this committee on matters not on our agenda but within the purview of the public and public safety and justice committee we'll hear speakers first in chambers and then on zoom do we have any

speaker cards

or hands raised we have no request to speak in chambers and one on zoom all right let's

looking

around i don't see anybody dashing up so let's close the queue with our

single speaker please first and only speaker is parent i'm unmuting you please accept the unmute you have three minutes one

second we are having trouble hearing you i've

addressed tried

to address you guys on many occasions about the sexual abuse of my kids that my

uh my

son he's confirmed that my ex -wife was letting a man rape him beginning at the age of 13 that i've been unnecessarily bathing with the children also there was sexual contact between two of the children one child rubbed his pelvic area against the rectum of a two -year -old another child and i've reported this all to the clinic center i've reported this to this attorney's office i reported this to the sheriff's office i've reported it everywhere and there's never been a screening for my kids there's never been an investigation of any kind and we all know in this room here that my kids they deserve a screening uh but for some reason a well -connected

attorney she gets to hijack the whole system and say she gets to determine she gets to say these kids get raped and these kids get protected i mean who is she to do this i mean i mean the district attorney should be protecting the community period

and

instead what he's done filed charges against me and i've suffered great bodily harm from this attorney uh because she actually is still in the law school and as i said i've totally wants me to

shut

up about it, and she's threatening to kill my kids, and now this violence against me has escalated into hands -on violence. Just the Saturday before last, somebody tried to strangle me, and last Wednesday, somebody pushed me up against the wall, hurt my hand, then he chased me with a knife, and he said he'd kill me.

So,

I mean, it's just so disgustingly terrible what DA Rosen is doing to me and my children,

using

charges to incentivize abuse, sorry, violence, and I mean,

I

saw him just last week at the press conference for the Los Gatos party. You know, how he got all choked up and talked about parental instincts to protect children and protecting other children. I mean, it's just a bunch of hogwash how he got choked up. I mean, I don't even think Daniel Day -Lewis could do what he did at that press conference, and then he got another ovation at the State of the County meeting. I mean, he just doesn't deserve it. I mean, what is he doing? He's destroying our community with violence and sex trafficking. He's just not a good person at all. Please, guys, can you please help me get a screening for my

children? Supervisor Lee, he's got all my contact information, and if you want to see more information about everything that I said, please Google DA Rosen petition sex trafficking, all those terms together, and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. Thank you so much for your time.

That was our final speaker. Thank you. The county recognizes that the topic the last speaker addressed, childhood sexual abuse, can be emotionally challenging or triggering. For some listeners, California law prohibits the disclosure of information related to an investigation of suspected child abuse or neglect. As a result, we are not authorized by law to speak to the specifics of any particular case or to the results of an investigation in that case, including when allegations are made as part of public comment. California law requires child welfare departments to immediately cross -report physical and sexual abuse of children to law enforcement and the district attorney so that swift action can be taken when needed. The public should be

assured that our county takes all allegations of child abuse and neglect seriously and takes appropriate action. That includes rapid and cross -agency responses to such allegations by the Department of Family and Children's Services, local law enforcement, the Child Advocacy Center, and the district attorney. And with that, we will move to item three, which is approval of the consent calendar. Supervisor Lee, I'd like to add item four to the consent calendar. This is the annual report from the Office of the County Executive.

I do want to offer a bit of direction. I'd like to direct the Office of the CEO to provide a report at the April PSJC meeting that includes the Office of Gender -Based Violence budget proposal for the next fiscal year and clarifies budget actions that took place last year and provides an accounting of all sources of funding for DV shelter and housing supports and any information regarding child abuse. I would like to add item four to the consent calendar. This is the annual report from the regarding anticipated reductions to services and their impact. And with that, I would move approval of the agenda.

So moved. All

right. Thank you very much. Is there a public comment on the consent calendar?

There are no requests to speak.

All right. Then let's vote to approve.

Vice Chairperson Lee? Aye. And Chairperson Allenberg? Yes. Thank you. Motion carries.

Thank you. Item five is to receive a report from the Office of the County Executive relating

to the Secure Youth Treatment Facility Program Data Book for the period July 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021. Any objections? Okay. Then we will come back to Item 6. Item 6 is to receive a report from the Probation Department relating to the Secure Youth Treatment Facility Program Data Book for the period July 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021. 24. looking forward to hearing this report great

good

afternoon everyone i'm kristin keller i'm a senior research and evaluation specialist with probation and we have provided the secure youth treatment facility data book to you all for the years of 2021 through 2024. we have presented or brought a presentation but before we begin since i know many of you have had a chance to review i just want to see if you would like us to continue with the presentation or proceed with questions i'm sure we have

reviewed but also very happy for you to go through the report briefly and highlight some of the real successes okay

so okay

for our agenda today we have the securities treatment facility overview so we'll talk a little bit about what this program is the probation stages of youth who've been committed to this program demographics commitment offenses risk level and principal service needs targeted treatment services program successes recidivism re -entry and then q a so

the secure youth treatment facility arose from senate bill 823 which was effective july 1st 2021. as of that date counties became responsible for housing programming and services for youth who have previously been committed or who would have previously been committed to the department of juvenile justice at the state level this legislation closed the division of juvenile justice on june 30th of 2023 and increased protections to prevent youth transfers to the adult criminal justice system while ensuring youth who commit serious offenses are then housed and receive rehabilitation support in their home communities in our county this is a program that occurs in the secure youth treatment facility or sytf as i'll refer to it which is

located at our juvenile hall

as

mandated in asp 823 each youth committed to this program has an individual rehabilitation plan

or

irp developed by a team of stakeholders including their probation officer system partners from behavioral health custody health the county office of education and their family or other support identified by the youth themselves

youth

then return to court every six months for an assessment of their readiness for placement in a less restrictive setting and to review their progress told towards those goals in their irp

the

population that may be committed to this sytf are youth who've committed wic 707b or pc 290 .008 offenses who are age 14 and up at the time of the event

those

youth must be deemed unsuitable by the court for a less restrictive alternative setting

to

be amenable for rehabilitation juvenile cases now may also be detained in an sytf

up

to the age of 25. so

in this presentation before i jump into this slide we're going to provide information specifically for the population of youth who are committed to this program between july of 2021 and december of 2024 in total 59 youth have been committed to the sytf during that time period and that includes 15 youth who were transferred from the djj to the sytf to finish their commitment the top of the slide the brighter blue rows on top

highlight

the youth who are or at this time as of december 31st we're committing or sorry we're serving their commitment to sytf of those youth a portion of them were in the sytf facility at juvenile hall we had one at county jail or elmwood specifically because of that individual's age and then we had a number of youth who were in less restrictive programs such as the lift program at james ranch in electronic monitoring or community supervision so these were youth who had you know made enough progress in their individual rehabilitation plan that the court decided to keep them in the sytf decided that it was appropriate to move them to less restrictive programs as of that

date we also had a number of youth who were discharged from their sytf commitment to a period of super community supervision so that was 12 views at the time and 16 who had been dismissed and the boxes on the right you can see we're just highlighting the number of youth who are actually in custody facilities at that time so of the 59 27

were

in custody and 32 were unrecognized by the official social security measure along with the 15K newspaper! to have returned to the community in some capacity. Looking at the demographics of youth committed to SYTF, the majority are Latino, 48 youth, that's 81 % of the population at this time, followed by six youth who are black, representing 10 % of the population. Three youth who are white, one Asian or Pacific Islander, and one other. So, disproportionately, Latino youth are represented.

Looking at gender, 55 of the youth, or 93%, were male. So, they make up the largest population in the group. Four youth were females. In terms of the age at their time of commitment, 40 youth, 68%, were between the ages of 18 to 25. So, the vast majority of youth who were committed to this program at Juvenile Hall or the facility in Juvenile Hall, were between those ages

at the time they

went into the program. Followed by 14 youth who were 16 to 17, and a small number who were either younger or older.

These are the most serious offenses for each youth. So, 41 % of youth were committed for homicides, 24 % or 14 youth for robbery, 17 % or 10 for assault, and a smaller number for attempted homicide, kidnapping, sex offenses, and use of a firearm.

The probation department uses the Juvenile Assessment Intervention System, or JACE, a gender -specific risk, need, and responsivity tool to identify the needs of youth who are coming into

our

custody. So, in this case, on the left side, you can see the risk level. This primarily represents the likelihood a youth will reoffend at the time of adjudication, so the majority of youth,

50%,

29 youth, were found to be at high risk of recidivism, followed by 27 youth, or 47%, at moderate risk. A very small number to youth were found to be at low risk at that time. On the right, you can see our principal service needs. So, these are needs that significantly contributed to a youth's legal issues.

The vast majority of youth, 81%,

came in with

needs related to negative peer relationships. That includes gang associations.

67%, okay, 67 % and under had, sorry, emotional factors. We had a moderate number who had parental supervision, substance use, and I wanna highlight criminal orientation. So, 60 % of the youth in this population had needs related to criminal orientation, and that specifically relates to

normalizing the legal behavior, so to speak, and kind of accepting it as justifiable in some way.

This slide outlines how targeted treatment services are carved out in the individual rehabilitation plan. So, as I said, each youth has a plan that is specific to address their principal service needs. In this example, we took the need related to, related to criminal orientation and identified what common goals and interventions might look like. So, goals might be learning to manage emotions and strengthen critical reasoning skills. And intervention to do that might be by completing a cognitive behavioral interventions class, individual therapy, rehabilitation therapy, and milieu support, as one example.

Overarchingly for this group, again, the 59 youth, all of the youth who had their primary core programming which was cognitive behavioral interventions core youth of 47 session cognitive behavioral curriculum that teaches them skills for emotional sorry

you

know it you definitely do not have to read through the slides you asked at the beginning

we have

read through them we're interested in in really a synthesis of what the takeaways are please

sorry in any case so CBICY is the program

the

primary program that the majority of youth are asked to complete in their IRP

a

smaller number were asked to complete victim impact and another program that was really common among the youth is credible messenger mentoring provided by community partners and other cognitive behavioral interventions courses like more advanced practices than the introductory core youth

looking at recidivism of the youth and this was as of April 30th 2025 so we extracted data on recidivism for this these 59 youth as of April 30th and what we found was that two youth were committed of new law violations that occurred while they were in the facility

among the

youth who had been discharged that is they've completed their SYTF commitment who are in community supervision one youth we saw with a new law violation and among the youth who had been dismissed 16 of them zero at this time had been convicted of a new law violation after dismissal

and

this recidivism data is specific to sustained petitions and adults convictions so

this

might not include youth who were rearrested overall and it does not include sustained petitions for violations of probation

I did want to note too that you know again because not all youth are represented in that figure some youth have had charges that are either pending or dismissed and so it could be that over time we see these recidivism numbers increase looking

towards re -entry the majority of youth who had re -entered the community 36 of them were employed and or enrolled in school and a smaller number seven youth were neither enrolled nor employed though the majority of them were working with their probation officer and community partners to find employment looking

at living situations the vast majority of youth who've exited the SYTF

returned

to living with family or friends so that's 68 % of the youth we've seen a smaller number

move

into subsidized housing whether transitional housing or renting independently with a rental subsidy we had at this at this time on June 30th four youth had returned to custody one with a VOP

and

three with adult arrests those three youth who returned to custody are not included in the recidivism slide as their cases were pending resolution at the time we extracted the data and a very small number were living and renting with roommates and now I think we can switch to questions

and answers thank you very much I would like to look first to comments from the public

we

have no request to speak on this item thank you

before we

go further I just really want to take a moment to to celebrate the the data in here you noted that on the SYTF youth broadly are at high risk of re -offense but from 2021 to 2025 only three of 59 youth served had new violations and all were legal violations and all were less serious offenses that is a 5 % recidivism rate this is a tremendous

accomplishment

a recidivism rate of 12 to 15 % I understand is the average across the state so to Nick and your your your team and the the entire department this is really a testament to the deep work that's being done to support and guide these youth to make meaningful changes in their lives and I appreciate that. I really think your department is the gold standard so thank you

about a

month or so ago I heard

from the

youth voices coalition and I brought this up at a JJCC meeting as well a frustration that not all justice impacted youth could avail themselves of the services and supports provided by probation

including

transitional housing employment and educational linkages what I want to be be clear about of course is that probation which is law enforcement shouldn't be the agency that we rely on to provide these services for youth who aren't their clients but of course it then begs the question of who should be doing this work for the broader community how can we replicate your successes and how can we make sure there's a smooth handoff when kids truly are done with their probation that they're out of the system but not suddenly entirely on their own when they have other very real non -criminal legal system related needs so I'm wondering if you've thought about that or if others

on the on the dais have thought about how we might support those youth when they are finished

I'd

like to invite deputy chief of on Cagarese up to discuss some of the feedback that we received when we met with the youth voices coalition and some of the activities that the department has taken into account and then of course we'd love to hear feedback from the rest of the committee

perfect

thanks Marielle

good

afternoon supervisor Ellenburg

I

believe it was in September that you had brought up this topic to us after your meeting with the I am

happy

to report that in October of 2025 the probation took your

heart and look into what we can do to help these youth who were exiting probation

so

I'm happy to report that in October 25 the

probation department

came up with a like a checklist we were able to make it into a policy that every youth who were on formal probation and who was going to be exiting probation

they

the probation officer had to go through a checklist with them to make sure that for example educational needs were met, housing were not an issue, and any other mental health services.

So

as long as they were on probation with us and prior to them being dismissed from probation.

So

we made that into our policy effective October of 2025.

And

what would the response be if any of those checklist items were not being met, they didn't know where they were going to live,

they

didn't have an educational plan,

they

needed other resources?

I'm sorry,

I

didn't mean to interrupt. That's all right. So that would mean for the probation officer to continue to work with the youth until they are

stabilized,

to make sure that everything is in place, or else they would still continue on probation for a little longer until we are able to make sure their needs are met.

So just help me understand the balance there, because of course we don't want youth to be on formal probation any longer than the law requires them to be. What I had been thinking about more was who supports them in an ongoing way rather than

keeping them

tied to probation until they meet all of those pieces.

That

could take a while.

Yes.

So an appropriate referral would be made for these youth prior to them being dismissed from probation.

The

goal is not for them to be on probation for any longer than they have to be. So, for example, if they needed assistance in an educational program, an appropriate referral would be made to, for

example,

if they needed help to get back enrolled in school, we would make a referral with NCIL, with Youth Law Foundation, and things like that.

And

tell me what a referral looks like.

Is

it telling the youth, go to this place?

Is

it doing a warm handoff and connecting the youth with the person on the other end of that referral?

It's more of a handoff with the probation officer, kind of walking the youth through the process. We don't just let them go into the

community

on their own.

It's

the probation officer who's still responsible for their case.

And have you gotten feedback from any youth who have stayed longer with the, with the probation department in order to have those needs met? I realize it's only a few months, but I'm curious if it has, if it has played out yet with anyone.

No,

I think we'd have to get back to you on that if we've heard anything positive or negative about that so far. But we haven't received any immediate feedback.

Thanks. I

think it would be good to track who opts, and presumably they have the option to stay longer, to continue to get services or walk away, right?

Correct. If

they don't want this support. So it would be interesting to get data, once you've had some months to do this work, on who is taking advantage of that offer to stay longer with probation. And the youth that say no thank you, understandably, is there some kind of exit interview or assessment at the end? At the end of whether they have a plan or just don't want support in making a plan.

So the checklist is sort of the exit interview, right? So that's the process that they, that the department implemented after this meeting, is that there's usually,

it was

more, it was more informal, more of a conversation of like, okay, you know, you're doing really well. It's time to kind of get you dismissed from probation. We're going to take you to court so that that can happen.

And

then now there's actually a formal checklist that they go through for dismissal.

We

have had a dismissal worksheet for four or five years, maybe longer now, where we actually were looking at how they were doing educationally

because

we had, the department had done a study several years ago that showed that kids were being kept on probation because of some of these issues. And we wanted to make sure that young people were going back before a judge every six months at minimum to see how they were doing and not just being left on probation because they needed behavioral health services or they needed housing.

Right,

right. So we don't want to go back in the other direction.

And

so I think this is more of just trying to formalize the process so that there is a very formal conversation with the youth about, do you want, do you feel like you need more services to be successful?

And

then it's up to the youth and the PO.

And

I'll hand it back over to Vaughn if there's anything else she wants to add.

No,

I think you added, so it's more of a conversational, Supervisor Allenburg, and taking from your feedback from your coalition with the youth.

Thank

you so much. I really appreciate it. I'll make an early motion.

I

know my colleague hasn't had an opportunity to weigh in yet,

but

to receive the report and to ask for a 12 -month report a year from now on what kind of trends you have seen with that.

Thank

you. We'll go to Chief Burchard and then to Public Defender Silver. Hold on one second. Let me just give you the courtesy.

Is

that all right? That's okay.

I'll

go after. Carry on.

Thank

you.

It's

not on.

Testing.

No,

it works.

Thank

you. There's been recent legislation, too, that's been passed that youth cannot be on probation now for any period of time over 12 months.

And

so depending how far along we are with the youth progressing through their individual rehabilitation plan as far as SYTF and just youth who are on probation,

we've

really got 12 months to work with that youth to get them in a place where they need to be, whether it's educationally, through referrals for behavior. Health support for the family. So the time

keeps

getting shorter, excuse me, shorter and shorter with youth, depending by the time they get done with court and where we're at with them. So formal probation is now only up to a year. So it's getting shorter and shorter.

So it will limit us in what we can work with the youth after that 12 months. Which may make it

more

important to think about what the linkage is when they leave probation, that those connections are. Are strong. Yeah. And that there is someone on the other side ready to continue as needed.

And

every probation officer working with youth will physically go with the youth to try to get them reconnected in school, go with their parents, meet them at the school, whatever it is that they need from us to help overcome some of these barriers.

We

all understand the educational system is difficult

for

anyone going through this system. A little more difficult maybe for our youth who have had some struggles. Trying to get them back into their home school. And

we've

all been through that process before. It's a difficult system to interact with.

And

so we certainly recognize that we are with the youth as much as we can be to get them enrolled in school. But there's a host of other difficulties that come into that.

And

certainly referrals from our part is what we do to make sure that there is a connection after we leave.

Thank

you. I really appreciate that observation.

Damon,

did you still want to weigh in?

I

don't know. I don't actually have anything else to add at this point.

Thank

you. Okay. ADO Perez. I just

have

a couple of points I think that are important to highlight.

I think

the probation department is a little modest in their advocacy for themselves. And

I

think it's really important to highlight, especially right now when we're dealing with difficult times and

we're

in the sort of pressure of providing services. What

we

have is absolutely a gold standard for services in the juvenile justice arena. And a couple things.

One,

their data collection is the gold standard. And the quality of the data you

collect,

the items you're looking for, how you're tracking this information is really outstanding. And a lot of counties are trying to replicate that. And we're a model for that. Two, the SYTF is a legislative created model. It's a model for how we're supposed to be treating our youth in the system.

It

is not our personal choice. It

is

what the law is, and we are following it.

Our

obligation as a system is to ensure that we're using it

wisely

for the people that it is intended to do, to make sure that we're not bringing in the low -level youth into this highly structured,

you

know, long -term system

of

care. So that's really important.

And I

think our probation department is doing an excellent job. And the way that we're

transitioning

our youth from the higher -level care to the step -down approach.

And

one important thing that we do really well

in

this county is the collaborative, inclusive collaboration, including, for example, the defense counsel in the, you know, creation of the treatment plan, the meeting with them, including the youth. That is stellar. And very few counties do that.

So

when you involve the youth in their own treatment, and then you get the court to also provide insight, and then the probation department,

when

the youth is doing well, is there advocating for the youth, for the youth to receive credits, for the youth to get an incentive to perform well,

we

have really a really good system.

And I

think it's important to highlight these pieces because we need to make sure

that we're doing

and maintaining what we're doing well. The

other

biggest component that I've seen in the last 10, 15 years is that our county has stood out in maintaining the excellent quality of the collaborative and rehabilitative culture of our staff. Our probation department has excellent staff that really care for the youth and that are committed for their success.

And

then the bigger piece, of course, is that the reason we

invest

all of this, and we want to do this now, is that we don't want these individuals to end up in our adult system.

And

it's a wise and smart investment. So

I

think these are really important highlights that we should, the record should reflect, and that we should make sure to outline for our probation team.

So

congratulations to all of you, and thank you for keeping up this wonderful work.

Thank

you. President Lee.

Oh,

yes. Thank you so much, Chair.

The

questions I have really is, first, echoing some of the comments that were made in the last couple of weeks. One of them has been made that this is a really great program that we're glad to see on your leadership, Nick, and your team to bring about for our youth, which

is

great, and that other counties are actually following our lead and try to copy.

And I

always like to share best practices. And this is one of those that we're doing well at.

In

the meantime, I also have spoken this a few times ago, a few years ago as well, having spoken with Judge Lucero at the time and

the Avery

Institute. Given the fact that we have a very, very low female youth population, we're looking at somewhere around zero to six is usually the number I usually see, there was a proposal that has been suggested back then with Judge Lucero about having a separate secured facility just for the girls instead of having it being in the facilities, and thinking that would be a better place for them,

partly

one thing. The other thing is that they found out in the statistics, you can correct me if I'm wrong, that

virtually

all of the girls in our system were at one point an assault, a sexual assault victim.

So

the view is that they really are more of a victim than a perpetrator of a certain type of crime. And

they

did commit a crime, probably, or suspected to do so, but at the same time, they really need help. So I just wanted to share and ask that question to see is this something that we should continue to pursue

moving

forward to find a place separate from the system we have right now.

Hi,

good afternoon.

Jill

Ugaldi. I'm the deputy chief over institutions.

So as far as our female youth population, we continue to work with them.

That's

a very great question that you asked. We

get

asked that very often. For our female youth, if

we

were to separate them into another unit, it would cause segregation. And they would be in there alone and only have interaction with essentially the staff.

So

what we propose to do is bring in other youth to have them have that social aspect of

their

stay, be able to interact and intervene with youth of their own age, their peers, to have that social aspect added to their commitment time.

So

that's why we don't separate them, and

they're

actually in one unit with general population for the time being. We also have added more. Not different services, but we've

availed

services to that individual that are very like the boys.

So

they're able to go to vocational training. They participate in educational programming with our male youth so that they still get

all

of the same resources and the same programming. I

think

it's

important to make sure that they get at least the same programming as the boys. There's

no

question about that. The

question

really here is whether or not it would be safer for them. Would they feel safer to be in the different settings

of

being in this type of a closer to a custodial setting versus in the house, even though secured.

So

that was the reason why it has been proposed when Judge Lucero was bringing that up earlier. So I just want to see what other ways we could do, because at the end of the day, we