NCJ Number
205580
Date Published
November 2001
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This reports describes the features, outcomes, and lessons learned for San Diego's (California) "Breaking Cycles" program, which is a multiagency, geographically diverse project designed to deter youth from becoming delinquent by focusing prevention programs on at-risk youth and their families, as well as by improving the juvenile justice and community response to juvenile offenders through a system of graduated sanctions.
Abstract
The primary components of the program are prevention, which involves identifying and targeting youth at-risk for appropriate programs, and improving the response to delinquent offenders through a system of graduated sanctions and a continuum of treatment alternatives. The strategy involved targeting identified risks, strengthening known protective factors, and working collaboratively and collectively with families, communities, schools, and other agencies. The problems encountered included difficulty in ensuring system integration across the various components of the project; identifying and providing services to adjudicated youth with educational disabilities, the changing role of the probation officer, and adequately anticipating infrastructure needs. Still, the program has produced many successes. Over 32,000 individuals in San Diego County have received prevention referrals and services from the community assessment teams, which target youth who exhibit high-risk behaviors before they become involved in the justice system. Eighty percent of eligible clients successfully exited the program. Under the system of graduated sanctions, the Probation Department is intervening with high-risk youth earlier than in the past, and these youth are receiving the services they need while being held accountable for their actions. Simultaneously, fewer institutional beds are being used and recidivism is decreasing. Recommendations are offered for other counties considering the implementation of a similar program.