Earlier this week, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to give a group of youth experts and advocates the power to determine how tens of millions of dollars that are supposed to be used on young people gets spent. The Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) funds were previously controlled by the Los Angeles County Probation Department. The 27-member Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council – which includes CDF-CA Policy Director Patricia Soung – is happy with the change. The motion was sponsored by Supervisors Janice Hahn and Mark Ridley-Thomas after learning that $79 million in JJCPA funds have remained unspent while so many youth programs are underfunded. The Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act was created in 2000 “to provide a stable funding source for local juvenile justice programs aimed at curbing crime and delinquency among at-risk youth.” The funds, which are allocated on a per capita basis to the state’s 56 participating counties, are mandated to be spent to fund a range of evidence-based programs, with the largest part allocated to community-based organizations that have proven track records for helping young people.
