Full_Commission
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 MINUTES OF MARCH
22, 2000 REGULAR MEETING
Held at Ben Franklin Middle School 1430 Scott St. @ O'Farrell St San Francisco, CA 94115
1. (ACTION)
Roll Call
The
meeting was called to order by Comm. Julian at 5:40 pm. Comms. Shimko, Chuck, Dupre were present at
the gavel. Comms. Aramburo and Hale
arrived at 6:03 pm. Comm. Jackson-Drake
was excused.
2. (ACTION) Review of February 23, 2000
meeting minutes
The
minutes were approved as written.
3.
(DISCUSSION) Chief Probation
Officer's Report:
Chief Williams was out of town, so
Assistant Chief Gwen Tucker made the report.
a.
Status reports
1.
SF Juvenile
Probation Department support of Mayor's Summit for Women
The
Dept will be sending 130 young ladies with chaperones to the summit. They will
schedule a reception for these participants before the summit, to be held at
City Hall.
2.
Ombudsman's report
Mr.
Khalif referred to the one page summary sheet in the monthly report, on
grievances. There were no "serious"
issues of violating detainees' rights (Title 15), more simply issues of
"quality of life" such as food complaints, or other disgruntlements due to
detainees' "picky-ness". For the girls,
issues regarding hygiene such as not having lotions are raised. There are two
issues being investigated, regarding counselors not following scheduled
activities. (It was referred to as "slowing down" the schedule).
Question:
Having been the ombudsman for this period, how would you assess things are
going Answer: slow going, some staff
(especially senior staff) are slow in accepting the changes being implemented.
On the whole it is coming along.
Question:
Do you work closely with Rev. Dunbar?
Answer: No.
3.
Assignment of
additional probation officers to Community Assessment & Referral Center
There
will be a total of 4 probation officers on regular work schedules, so no
overtime will be used.
b. Highlights from last Commission meeting to
present (**Explanatory document: Feb.
monthly report)
1. Employee recognition : Rhonda Hutchings, PO
ACPO Tucker read a letter of commendation to Rhonda
Hutchings, from her supervisor, and also a letter of appreciation from her
charge (a young lady), for going out of her way to help the youth continue in
her programming (eg. replacing her stolen bicycle). Tucker presented Hutchings with a framed certificate of
acknowledgment and appreciation.
c.
Emerging
Issues/Upcoming Events
1.
Youth Media
Exchange Day : Saturday, April 29,
2000, at Juvenile Hall
The
correct name of the planned event is Youth Media Expo Day, and is being planned
by the Pacific News Service/YO!/The Beat Within. The purpose would be to hold an expo of available services that
could benefit the kids in juvenile hall, as well as have a venue where kids in
juvenile hall can exhibit the things they have done while in juvenile hall
(whether they are art projects or other works). They will have a performance and dinner in conjunction with this.
4. (DISCUSSION) Impact of
Prop. 21 on the Juvenile Probation Department operations
Speakers:
James Bell, Esq., Youth Law Center; Youth Commissioners: June Strohlin,
Kareem Ervin; Jessica Smith.
Mr.
James Bell, attorney from the Youth Law Center, framed the issue around 3 main
concerns: 1) mandatory detention. Requires 6 mos detention for expanded list
of offenses, esp. with firearms. 2)
hidden costs of litigation from crowding, hidden costs of staff in facilities
in terms of morale and OT 3)
elimination of informal probation (deferred entry of judges) , thus increasing
demands on counseling staff
The
proposition's gang related provisions will increase the number and length of
trials. The juvenile authorities will
have to begin complying with the demand of establishing systems for compliance
with registering and verifying gang related activities. Meaning the dept will have to identify (how
to) the person as a gang person, what s/he does which makes him/her a gang
person, and what the dept. will do with him/her as a gang person. All of these activities will be the
responsibility of the local depts without financial assistance from the State.
Mr.
Bell said that some counties will be using the Prop to reduce their local costs
because the costs for referrals to the CYA will be the State's responsibility.
Comm.
Julian commented that it was clear
that this proposition would work counter to reducing the population in juvenile
hall.
Comm.
Shimko said that also working to
increase juvenile hall numbers, the proposition requires that certain violators
be kept in juvenile hall until they appear before a judge (overriding the
detention criteria tool used by the Dept.)
Question:
does the 6 mos detention preclude
unsecured placement? Answer: appears to
say, juvenile hall, a ranch, or Youth Authority (a secure facility). This would make juvenile hall a post
disposition placement. Does the 6 mos mandatory stay give credit to time served
prior to the court hearing? No clarity
on this.
Question:
what about the challenges to the
ballot being pursued. There are various
issues about the ballot being challenged: its multiplicity, its inconsistent
summaries in voters' handbooks -owing to county by county actions. Mr. Bell thought it would be difficult to
convince the courts that voters did not know what they were voting on.
Question:
would pre hearing releases be
allowed? Possibly, but for certain
violations, the proposition would discourage this -fearing public safety,
danger of flight—since the youth would be facing serious jail time. Question: disclosure issue. The proposition would allow the police to
release info about a youth upon arrest, but such disclosure can be prohibited
if a judge determined it to be. Maybe
the Juvenile Probation Dept needs to work something out with the Police Dept so
that no disclosure is made until a judge determines the propriety of it.
Question:
how much local discretion is there to apply Prop 21 or not. Mr. Bell said there is some discretion in
some areas of the prop.
It
was felt that the State would not pursue prosecution of counties which did not
enforce Prop. 21. It was also noted
that the Sheriff's Dept indicated an interest in taking juveniles into their
facilities (for the higher rates of pay from the State for juvenile detention).
Comm.
Hale commented that Prop 21 is a
backend attempt to deal with the problem of juvenile delinquency rather than putting
the emphasis on the prevention. Mr.
Bell said that already 87% of the youth in CYA are people of color. He commented that the most important thing
that can be done now, locally, is to up the efforts toward prevention, to
further lower the potential of youth being caught in the net tightening.
Question:
any flexibility in definition of
gangs? Answer: this is not the
question. The issue is the wide ranging inclusion of things that might be
defined as "gang related" or "in furtherance of gang activity". So more people can be brought into the "net"
database of gangs/gang related.
Jessica Smith and Jewn Strohlin ("Jewnbug"),
from the Youth Commission:
Jewnbug
spoke first about the increased pressures and stress put on families from this
proposition. She also mentioned the
lessened opportunities for advocacy on the part of the juvenile when direct
filing in adult court occurs. Various
ways she and the Youth Commission (via the Juvenile Justice Committee [Task
Force]) are working on this issue are: doing articles for newspapers (eg. Bay
Guardian) to further educate the public about their rights and how to protect
themselves in light of the proposition, doing training for police officers and
others to change their perceptions of youth and their interaction with youth.
She
said that the Juvenile Probation Commission can support the Youth Commission by
endorsing their work, as well as increase the Juvenile Probation Dept's work
with the schools (eg. more counseling for at risk youth) for prevention.
J.
Smith touched on a few points: the
Youth Commission held a forum in Feb. to get adults and youth to express what
they thought would work in bettering the relationship between the generations
(she had a report from that forum that she passed out to the Commissioners). She also had a fact sheet comparing the
costs of prevention and intervention.
She said she suspected that youth tried as adults (under Prop 21) would
not receive the same support services that youth in the juvenile system
receive. She suggested that the
Juvenile Probation Dept find some ways of linking the juvenile POs with those
youth put over into the adult system, or if this wasn't possible, to train the
adult POs how to deal with those youth, and provide them with the resources
they would need. Smith also raised the
issue of potential harassment of youth in the adult system. She emphasized that it would be important to
widely educate youth on what their rights are, and how to de-escalate the
situation if dealing with the police.
These and other community based prevention services are important and
she encouraged the Dept. to further give support to them.
ACPO
Tucker mentioned that the Dept. has outplaced probation officers in
schools. She also mentioned that the
number of community program contracts have tripled since 4 years ago.
Comm.
Arámburo thanked Smith and Strohlin for the
reports. She said they welcomed the
continuing dialog on this issue and the participation of the Youth Commission
on the upcoming work.
Comm.
Hale commented that there needs to be
a re definition of what the police are, and what young people are. Young people need to see police as
people. Junebug agreed, and commented
that the prejudice cuts both ways, that those negative generalizations are held
by police as well as young people toward the other..
There
was a discussion around the ways that Jewnbug worked with the schools. She described a very intensive and
interactive way that she worked in the classrooms (called REAL), doing ‘real
life' lessons incorporated into the subject matter in the class (whether it was
math, English or social studies). The
objective of her work is the development of critical thinking, and empowerment
of youth so they can understand and handle life situations positively and peacefully. Her presentation and explanation of the
activities was impressive and warmly received. Question: how will
Prop 21 affect those coming out of LCR?
ACPO Tucker said that the Dept. is trying to improve the Aftercare
program so that they have more support when they come out.
Comm.
Julian acknowledged, with great
appreciation, the energy and passion expressed and shown by Jewnbug and Jessica
Smith, to community service to the youth of the community, and that the
Commission shares that commitment and passion for the youth. He thanked them again for taking the time to
speak to the Commission.
Comm.
Hale stated that he is concerned
about the ability of the court to revoke probation without a hearing and order
a dispositional hearing. Looks like
lack of due process. The second issue
he raised was the elimination of need to notice parents of impending
hearings.
Further,
the requirement of having a parent sign a release and promise to appear before
a youth can be released to the parents will be problematic with the immigrant
and "runaway" population in the Dept.
Comm.
Dupré introduced the Principal of Ben
Franklin MS, Ms. Marilyn Noda Ford, who extended her welcome to the Commission.
It
was suggested that the Commission establish an Ad Hoc Committee to monitor the
effects of Prop 21, as it is implemented.
Comm. Julian directed the Secretary to work this out.
5. (DISCUSSION) Public Comment on any matter within the
subject matter jurisdiction of the Juvenile Probation Commission. None.
6.
(DISCUSSION) Announcements,
requests for future agenda items.
Comm.
Shimko announced that with the April
Commission meeting, she will finish her role on the Commission, and asked that
if fellow Commissioners had any potential candidates for her replacement, she
would welcome the referral.
7.
(ACTION) Adjournment
The
meeting was adjourned at 7:25 pm.
** The Minutes of this meeting set forth all
actions taken by the Juvenile Probation Commission on the matters stated, but
not necessarily the chronological sequence in which the matters were taken up
approved 4/26/2000