SECTIONS 1850-1861 - California Statutes

WELFARE AND INSTITUTIONS CODE

SECTION 1850-1861

1850. The purpose of this article is to protect society more
effectively by providing a system of flexible constraints and
controls that utilize short-term confinement for selected youthful
offenders, followed by intensive probation supervision. To this end
it is the intent of the Legislature that this article be liberally
interpreted in conformity with its declared purpose.

1851. In order to provide appropriate facilities for the
rehabilitative treatment of young offenders who otherwise may be
committed to the Department of the Youth Authority or the Department
of Corrections, and in order to provide this treatment in the
community where family and personal relationships can be strengthened
rather than severed, and in order to provide a range of alternative
dispositions to the courts before whom young offenders appear, and in
order to provide opportunities for private citizens to contribute
actively to the rehabilitation of offenders in their own
neighborhood, youth correctional centers may be established by
ordinance by boards of supervisors of any county, as provided in this
article.

1852. Complete operation and authority for administration of the
youth correctional center shall be vested in the county. The board of
supervisors shall place responsibility for internal management with
the chief probation officer.

1853. Juvenile court wards and criminal offenders eligible for
probation may be committed to youth correctional centers as a
condition of probation, provided they come within all of the
following descriptions:
(1) Who have not, at the time of commitment, reached the age of 25
years.
(2) Who have not been found guilty of a capital offense in a
criminal proceeding.
(3) Who have been declared a ward of the juvenile court pursuant
to Section 602, Welfare and Institutions Code, or who have been found
guilty in a criminal proceeding of one or more public offenses where
the maximum term of confinement is not less than six months if the
sentences run consecutively.
(4) Whose rehabilitation and reformation requires short-term
confinement followed by intensive probation supervision. The juvenile
court may in its discretion commit any eligible ward of the juvenile
court to the youth correctional center program and any criminal
court may in its discretion commit any eligible offender to the youth
correctional center program as a condition of probation, except that
no commitment shall be placed into effect until the chief probation
officer has certified to the committing court that the youth
correctional center has adequate facilities to provide rehabilitative
treatment for the offender.

1854. While under commitment to the youth correctional center, the
offender is subject to the control of the chief probation officer.
The offender may be confined to the center at all times; he may be
released for brief periods to work, attend school, or engage in
educational or recreational pursuits; or he may be allowed to live in
the community and return to the center for specific services as
directed by the chief probation officer.

1855. Earnings of offenders who reside in the center and work in
the community shall be collected by the chief probation officer. From
such earnings the chief probation officer may pay the offender's
board and personal expenses and such administrative costs as are
allocable to him. Any balance may be paid periodically to the
offender as deemed appropriate by the chief probation officer. Upon
the offender's release from juvenile court wardship or termination of
his probation, all funds credited to his account shall be paid to
him.

1856. When in the opinion of the chief probation officer an
offender appears to be unamenable to the program of the youth
correctional center, he shall be returned to the committing court for
further disposition. The court shall then make an alternative
disposition.

1857. The Board of Corrections shall adopt and prescribe the
minimum standards of construction, operation, programs of education
or rehabilitative training or treatment, and qualifications of
personnel for youth correctional centers established pursuant to this
article. No county establishing or conducting such a youth
correctional center shall be entitled to receive any state funds
provided for in this article unless and until the minimum standards
and qualifications referred to in this section are complied with by
such county.

1858. No youth correctional center established pursuant to this
article shall be planned to accommodate more than 350 youths under
supervision at any one time. Any youth correctional center that
consistently exceeds this capacity shall be ineligible to receive
subsidy funds.

1859. Where any such youth correctional center is established, and
where the minimum standards and qualifications provided for in
Section 1857 have been complied with by the county, the State of
California through the Youth Authority, out of any money appropriated
for this purpose, shall reimburse the county at the rate of two
hundred dollars ($200) per month per person being supervised by the
youth correctional center during the first six months of such person'
s first-time participation in the center program. This amount shall
be adjusted annually, upward or downward, by the Director of Finance
in accordance with the proportionate increase or decrease in per
capita costs for supervising Youth Authority wards in institutions
and on parole.
Whenever a claim made by a county pursuant to this section
covering a prior fiscal year is found to have been in error,
adjustment may be made on a current claim without necessity of
applying the adjustment to the appropriation for the prior fiscal
year.

1860. (a) From any state moneys made available to it for that
purpose, the Youth Authority shall share in the cost pursuant to this
article of the construction of youth correctional centers
established by counties which apply therefor.
(b) "Construction" as used in this section includes construction
of new buildings and acquisition of existing buildings and initial
equipment of any such buildings, and, to the extent provided for in
regulations adopted by the Department of the Youth Authority,
remodeling of existing buildings owned by the county, to serve as a
youth correctional center, and initial equipment thereof.
"Construction" also includes payments made by a county under any
lease-purchase agreement or similar arrangement authorized by law and
payments for the necessary repair or improvements of property which
is leased from the federal government or other public entity without
cost to the county for a term of not less than 10 years. It does not
include architects' fees or the cost of land acquisition.
(c) The amount of state assistance which shall be provided to any
county shall not exceed 50 percent of the project cost approved by
the Youth Authority and in no event shall it exceed three thousand
dollars ($3,000) per offender the program is designed to accommodate.
(d) Application for state assistance for construction funds under
this article shall be made to the Youth Authority in the manner and
form prescribed by the Youth Authority, and the Youth Authority shall
prescribe the time and manner of payment of state assistance, if
granted.

1861. The Department of the Youth Authority shall report to the
Legislature no later than the fifth legislative day of the 1974
Regular Session on the experiences and the results under the
provisions of this article. Pending review by the Legislature of such
report, the state shall not participate financially in the
establishment of more than four youth correctional centers.