2.

(ACTION) Review and approval of April 11, 2007 meeting minutes, Jan. 8, 2007 Finance Committee meeting minutes, and March 28, 2007 Program Committee meeting minutes.

The President tabled action on minutes of committee meetings and referred them back to committee for action.  The minutes of April 11, were approved as written (4-0)

(public comments)
There were none.

3.

Public comment on any matter within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Juvenile Probation Commission
Debra Valdivia, Program Coordinator of the Parenting Skills Program raised her objection to the Dept’s apparent lack of commitment to the program, by not having a category for it in any current or future RFP, or without any indication that they (the Dept) will help the Parenting Program operators find a fit in the matrix of programs, so they can continue.. Ed Vasgerdsian, founder of the program, also expressed his outrage that a program of such note is not being supported by the Dept. (documents presented at the meeting are attached)

The Chief expressed his support of the concept of involving parents in the rehabilitation of the youth. He said he thought this group had found a place within the YGCIC, but will look into the issue. 

President Queen asked if the Chief meant he supported the Parenting Skills Program and would find a way to keep it going.  The Chief said yes.  President Queen asked that this be reported back at the next commission meeting.

John Knox said that his understanding was that the YGCIC would only host the program for one year.

Mitchell Salazar commented that there appeared to be a reversion to probation officer based services as opposed to centering services in the communities.  He said this was a reversal of what had been going on, institutionalizing community based, and collaborative services.

Joanne from the Bayview district urged the commission to bring more services to her neighborhood, which she says is lacking in resources for youth, especially in the upcoming summer months.

Tracy Brown, Mission Neighborhood Ctr, expressed concern for the overcrowding of juvenile hall, the overcharging of youth, the absence of police reports when admitting youth to juvenile hall, the lack of graduated sanctions or detention alternative programs for offenses.  She said CBOs would be happy to work with the Dept on developing some resources that can be utilized for this.  She also asked that youth not be admitted unless accompanied by a police report (similar to the adult system).

4.

(DISCUSSION) Chief’s report.  The Chief introduced two new POs (Vivian Green, Lorena Darez), who gave a brief introduction of themselves. 

He reported that a committee has been established to further the protocols for naming spaces in juvenile hall, the next meeting being May 15.

He reported that they have been doing many things to assure the quality of life in juvenile hall vis-a-vis the increased numbers, and have put more administrative oversight on the day-to-day activities in the hall.

They have been discussing the issue with other partners (court, DA, PD, etc) to understand the impact of the situation, and the CBOs involved with detention alternative programs. Efforts are being made to intensively review and expedite cases. Encouragement is being given to police to cite and release, or refer to CARC rather than admitting to JH.  (the full written report is attached)

Comm Fetiçō asked why these problems have not been resolved now, 2 yrs after coming here (having acknowledged the problem before), when the commission has indicated its concern for this early on. The Chief said that many things were out of his control.  He’s had to understand the level of work and training of the POs, the practices of the courts and officers, the reduced resources within the dept, and the lack of support for JDAI, that he was led to believe existed here. The recent crisis in population has called forward the stakeholders to try and address it.

Comm Woodson asked if they had analyzed why there was a spike in crimes (eg robbery) by Afr/Am youth in the Bayview Hunters Point community.  She asked if various scenarios were the cause, and the Chief echoed those as situations, which lead to over detention.

Comm Rojas asked how many of the youth brought to YGC are from crimes committed at schools.  There was no definite number available at the meeting.

(public comment)

A rep from the Mission Neighborhood Center asked if there could be a private place in juvenile hall that confidential conversations could be held between detainees and service providers? There used to be.  The Chief said he’d look into it.

Another speaker asked what is being done to get more alternative placement beds at culturally competent organizations. The Chief said there is a plan to deal with the closure of Walden House. As to needs of undocumented youth, the Dept cannot solve that problem by itself.

Denise Coleman, CARC, commented that there still is a disparity between charges and actual violations, which result in youth being detained in juvenile hall rather than being dealt with through CARC.  Her other concern was about violations of probation which bring youth back into juvenile hall needlessly.

Another rep from Mission Neighborhood Center (MNC) was concerned about the practice of co-ed detention (having males and females in the same unit).  The Chief said it is a staffing issue. He said it wont happen again.

Barbara Ross, DPO, expressed her concern over the aggressive and arbitrary charging of youth for crimes that are more serious than they really are. (eg. youth with bb guns charged with weapons violations. Whereas youth with brass knuckles are not detained). There are many younger youth being charged and held in juvenile hall.

Vanessa, MNC, spoke about the needs of kids who are long-term cases, and how they want to find more resources in the community to serve them. This includes the undocumented youth.

She also was unhappy about the attitudes of some court officers toward CBOs when they come to court.

Tenish Smith, a caseworker at MNC expressed disappointment that they have only gotten 11 referrals from the Dept for their program, this program year.

Claudia, coordinator of an ERC asked that a PO be assigned to the ERC again, as once was the case. The Chief said that this was part of the model that he had in Chicago and thought was going to be here.

Tracy Brown presented recommendations from the juvenile justice providers association that addressed the overcrowding issue at juvenile hall.

“House review” including participation from juvenile justice providers association.

Establishing procedures re: probation violations, alternative services

Utilizing shelters

Police overcharging

Refusing to intake youth without a police report

Arturo, Columbia Park Boys/Girls Club expressed disappointment that referrals from the Dept to their program have been few (14 out of 59).

The Chief said that he is looking toward the organizational development under the Zellerbach grant to restore this relationship, and will involve community in the planning for it.

He acknowledged the letter they sent him and said he has already instructed the probation services that any case supervision will include some utilization of community based services.

Damone Hale commented that much of the upswing in juvenile population is due to police overcharging and judges detaining. He said that the impression that MOCJ is spurring a “rebirth” of interest in JDAI is crap. He said that City Hall has always been at the table when JDAI was being developed here, and known what it takes to keep kids out of juvenile hall.  But they don’t have concrete evaluations of effectiveness in community programs, and judges have no confidence to send kids to them.

Abrahim, Inner City Youth, spoke in support of transitional housing and fixing LCRS.

Another speaker expressed his disappointment at all stakeholders for the continued failing of the system to keep numbers of youth out of detention. He spoke about the community peace plan that has many ideas that should be implemented, and has been discussing it in the Latino community to see how it can be adapted to their needs. He encouraged the Dept and Commission to explore it more intently.

5.

(DISCUSSIOIN) Mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff/MOCJ working group-on-juvenile-justice members invited to address progress on strategies to reduce Juvenile Hall population vis-a-vis JDAI.

President Queen mentioned that the Mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff was unable to come in response to the Commission’s invitation, but that maybe the Director of MOCJ would make the report in her stead.  Lenore Anderson, MOCJ Director reviewed the recent work of a working group that is concentrating attention on juvenile justice matters. At a meeting last Wed this group brain stormed ideas that could be implemented to address the spike in juvenile hall numbers.  She also referred to an executive directive from the mayor that also gave some guidelines to be implemented. (directive attached)  She announced an upcoming meeting of the steering committee, and some of the actions being taken to expedite release of youth from juvenile hall.

Comm Fetiçō asked if there were any appropriations attached to those orders.  No.

President Queen was frustrated that what claimed to be happening now was what was claimed to have been done back in March.  It didn’t seem to have been a sincere effort made.  He said that for even longer there have been other issues (eg. transitional housing) for which claims of getting solutions have been made, but until resources are put into them, they won’t be done.

He further expressed his outrage that the Juvenile Probation Commission, the policy body over the Dept has not been consulted or brought to the table in these ongoing and new groups of “stakeholders”.  He said that in the same light it was also unacceptable that the Chair of the JPC Program Committee’s request for a meeting with the DA has gone unanswered. He reminded people that it was the commission that wrote a letter to Julian Potter asking for an emergency meeting re. the juvenile hall population.

He went further to direct the Chief to put together a budget that reflected what the Dept needed to fully do the work needed, both internally and with community based organizations, for the Commission to review.

He expressed his unhappiness with the process to date and said that he hoped they would see to it that the commission is included in all future planning and discussions. And he would be appointing an ad hoc committee to help see that this is moved forward.

L. Anderson stated her understanding and said these were very similar to comments that were made at that Wed. meeting and said that she would try to provide leadership to accomplish that.

President Queen emphasized that these were grievous slights, for example, his email was answered with an automated reply of apology and not even a call back.

Comm Woodson echoed her disappointment in not having been given the chance to be a part of the decision making process.

She urged them to keep the commission in the loop.

(public comments)

Damone Hale said that the Commission adopted JDAI as the policy for the department.  He said that the Charter does not include the Mayor’s office in matters of making dept policy, which is the Commission’s authority. He said that when he was President of the Commission there was an open dialog between the Mayor’s office and the Commission. But now they are just trying to control this Dept.

6.

(DISCUSSION/ACTION) Presentation by community representatives on issues of community needs, and community-driven, district based planning strategies, with possible recommendations for future actions.

Much of the public comment from the community came during item #3 above.

7.

(DISCUSSION/ACTION) Establishing a protocol for awarding Juvenile Probation Commission Commendations.

Comm Woodson briefly stated that the language in the second draft (given to commissioners tonight) is a synthesis of the various wording given to her from the last meeting.

President Queen asked to have this item carried back to committee and returned to the full commission at the next meeting.

(public comments)

There were none.

8.

(DISCUSSION) Report on progress/problems of CBO services/programs.

The Chief commented that apparently Lonnie Holmes had to leave so there was no report available at this time.

(public comments)

There were none.

9.

(DISCUSSION) Committee reports, other reports

·         Program committee

Comm Woodson reported that she had been having individual meetings with staff in the Dept to get a fuller familiarity with the operations all around and will continue to set up meetings with other individuals to further gather information.  She will then set up a program comm. mtg next month. She also has attended meetings with groups in the Western Addition to talk about service to at risk girls in the neighborhood. 

President Queen commended her on her efforts to date. 

·         Facilities committee

Comm Rojas reported there was no meeting since the last report out, but will be setting up one.

·         Finance committee

Comm Fetiçō briefly reviewed what was discussed; reviewing the monthly financial statement on the Dept’s operations, writing a letter to the Controller to attend to specific items for the Dept audit that was requested previously, and some potential staffing changes (eg. hiring of new POs). There was also a discussion of the Mayor’s directive to set aside an additional 3% of the budget in case further reductions are necessary. He said that there is no support coming from the Mayor’s office to deal with the problems the Dept has.  More financial resources are needed, not less.

The Chief asked President Queen for a clarification for what document he wanted prepared.  This was cleared up.

The next action would be through a special meeting of the full commission.

(public comments)

An audience member said that asking for another 3% reduction was an insult.

He wanted to know what impact another 3% would have on the budget.

He supported President Queen’s request for a full budget.

10.

Public comment on any matter within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Juvenile Probation Commission

Before public comment was taken, President Queen asked all commissioners to submit times they are available in June for the retreat, given the problem with the original date chosen.

Comm Rojas asked if a meeting is possible during working hours.

The secretary will compile all input and see what potential dates are possible.

Vicki Rega commented that LCRS needed programs that were independent of the staffing changes there, so things aren’t interrupted.  She also reported that 3 graduates of LCRS and Turning Heads would be going to SFSU media program.  Comm Fetiçō reviewed that there were 3 residents of LCRS who obtained their HS diplomas and not just a GED.

President Queen mentioned that Comm Rojas suggested that the Commission send flowers to Comm Beijen for his recuperation.  All commissioners will share the cost.

11.

(DISCUSSION) Requests for future agenda items. 

There were none.

12.

(ACTION)  Adjournment

President Queen closed the meeting with the thought that hopefully this time there will be enough money put to addressing all the problems that have been plaguing the system all these years. There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 8:24pm