Los Angeles countywide comprehensive strategy for successful community reentry/re-integration of serious , gang-involved juvenile offenders.

The Second Chance Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 110-199) provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of people who are released from prison, jail, and juvenile residential facilities and returning to communities. There are currently over 2.3 million individuals serving time in our federal and state prisons, and millions of people cycling through local jails every year. There are approximately 94,000 youth in residential confinement within the juvenile justice system on any given day. Ninety-five percent of all offenders incarcerated today will eventually be released and will return to communities. The Second Chance Act will help ensure the transition individuals make from prison, jail, or juvenile residential facilities to the community is safe and successful.

Los Angeles County (LAC) operates the largest juvenile probation camp system in the nation. On a daily basis, the Probation Department's 19 camps house 2,200 serious and chronic juvenile offenders with a 20-week average length of stay. Based on Probation data and a Rand Corporation study, the recidivism rate for youth who transitioned to the community from camps was 32% in fiscal year 2008-09. In a 2009 profile, a sample of 1,148 youth in camps was 85% male, 65% Latino, 28% African American, 3% White and 4% other races. Youth in the target population have faced multiple barriers to successful community reintegration: mental health and substance abuse problems, low levels of educational attainment, lack of employment opportunities, anti-social attitudes and peers, and pressure to resume gang involvement. LAC Second Chances for Youth (LACSCY) will target the reentering youth with the highest recidivism rates: serious and gang-involved juvenile offenders transitioning to communities challenged by high levels of gang violence.

CA/NCF