Fresno County CA’s only juvenile boot camp facility officially closed Monday. Report from KSEE24News.
The Elkhorn boot camp opened 11 years ago. Cuts in state funding and a lack of county revenue prompted county supervisors to approve the closure in March. Most of the 100 cadets were transferred to the Juvenile Justice Campus last week. The remaining youth have been placed in an electronic monitoring program, many of whom are also required to attend school daily.
Chief Probation Officer Linda Penner said her department is working hard to make the best of a difficult situation. 25 Elkhorn employees were transferred to the JJC, but 16 employees were laid off because of the closure.
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Fresno County CA supervisors decided Tuesday that they want to consider more options before closing a juvenile boot camp. Report from the FresnoBee.
A committee of supervisors and county staffers will look at other ways the county can run the program now housed at the Elkhorn Correctional Facility near Caruthers. The committee should return to the board by its March 24 meeting. The county Probation Department recommended shutting down the boot camp to help close a $1 million shortfall in the budget year ending June 30, and an expected $8.5 million gap next year. “We’re kind of boxed into making this recommendation,” said Probation Department director Linda Penner.
The boot camp houses 140 juvenile offenders. It costs about $9 million a year to run, Penner said. The closure plan called for some of them to be transferred to the county’s other juvenile detention site, some to be put on electronic monitoring and some to be released from their sentences. Supervisors said they recognize the department’s financial bind, but worry about releasing juvenile offenders and closing a program that has successfully rehabilitated many young people. David Gottlieb, presiding judge in the juvenile delinquency court, said the court’s judges were prepared to oppose the closure plan. It would remove an important sentencing option for judges, he said …
But [County Supervisor Debbie] Poochigian said the board is only delaying the inevitable decision to close the boot camp. “We each need to bite the bullet,” she said.
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