Type of Facility: Juvenile rehabilitation, education, and treatment center for the state of California.
I was given the tour by the institution’s secretary, a Mr. Scott Kernan.
I chose this facility due to my interest in juvenile justice and the need to have a first-hand view and understanding of how juvenile offenders are treated and rehabilitated by the criminal justice system.
The primary purpose of this facility is to provide education and treatment to youthful juvenile offenders in California State who have committed serious criminal offenses or felonies that require intensive treatment services in a secure and structured environment. It is a juvenile correctional facility that aims at helping youthful offenders to reform and return to the community as responsible individuals (Jannetta & Lin 3). Moreover, this facility provides parole supervision and training for young and juvenile adult offenders. According to section 1700 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, the primary purpose and mission of the facility are the protection of the public from criminal activities. The facility also has the legal mandate to provide treatment and training services to juvenile offenders, ensure participation of youthful offenders in the victim and community restoration, provide assistance to justice agencies with delinquency and crime control, and development of local and state programs for crime and delinquency prevention (CDCR Online).
My main observation of the facility during the visit was that inside the facility, the youthful offenders are well treated and provided with proper training and education facilities. There are also many training facilities such as workshops where the juvenile delinquents are taught vocational skills. I liked the manner in which the staff working at the facility treated the offenders. However, I disliked the lack of enough education services for the offenders since the library seemed less stocked. Comparing the experience at this facility and my previous experience, I can note that the juvenile justice system and institutions are different from what is described in books. This difference is regarding the operation of these facilities. Nevertheless, my previous perceptions about such facilities and what I saw are somewhat similar in that
Works Cited
CDCR. “About the Division of Juvenile Justice.” 2016. Web. 2 July 2016. <http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/juvenile_justice/about_djj/index.html>
Jannetta, Jesse and Jeffrey Lin. The role of the DJJ in the California Juvenile Justice System. UCIrvine Center for Evidence-based Corrections, 2005. Web. 2 July 2016. <http://ucicorrections.seweb.uci.edu/files/2013/06/The-Role-of-the-DJJ-in-the-CA-Juvenile- Justice-System1.pdf>
